Terry O'Reilly is an ad man who has continuously run a show on CBC radio for decades, starting with O'Reilly on advertising, followed by age of persuasion, and now under the influence.
I remember listening to his show and he had some episodes that explained 2 things:
1. Advertising is conservative. Not politically conservative, but conservative in that it plays things very safe, and usually is the last one to the party on any given trend. They may have gone all-in on stuff like multiracial families and gay imagery, but only once it seemed like society had already long accepted it.
2. Marketers ended up getting some very strong signals around 2008 that the entire society was turning progressive and they should too. There were a couple of studies that ended up showing first that something like 70% of millennials were progressive, and second that something like 70% of people claimed that they would pay a premium for a brand that is seen as supporting causes, regardless of what those causes were.
So in that sense, the relatively recent failure of wokeness is something they're responding to in record time.
One thing everyone on every side needs to remember is that brands don't give a fuck about your cause. They're just trying to sell their products, and if coopting your thing will help them do that they will, and they'll happily use your cause up like a tissue and toss it away once it's no longer useful.
I remember listening to his show and he had some episodes that explained 2 things:
1. Advertising is conservative. Not politically conservative, but conservative in that it plays things very safe, and usually is the last one to the party on any given trend. They may have gone all-in on stuff like multiracial families and gay imagery, but only once it seemed like society had already long accepted it.
2. Marketers ended up getting some very strong signals around 2008 that the entire society was turning progressive and they should too. There were a couple of studies that ended up showing first that something like 70% of millennials were progressive, and second that something like 70% of people claimed that they would pay a premium for a brand that is seen as supporting causes, regardless of what those causes were.
So in that sense, the relatively recent failure of wokeness is something they're responding to in record time.
One thing everyone on every side needs to remember is that brands don't give a fuck about your cause. They're just trying to sell their products, and if coopting your thing will help them do that they will, and they'll happily use your cause up like a tissue and toss it away once it's no longer useful.
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The advertising industry started advertising cigarettes to women as liberty torches around the late 20s, the numbers I saw were 1928/1929. By that time, the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote was almost 10 years old, it was already a safe standpoint on an issue that had been won. As for multiracial couples, miscegenation laws were wiped out in the 1960s and even symbolically the laws that were unenforceable had been struck from the books by 2000, it isn't particularly controversial today either.
Government propaganda is a different beast mind you, and it's scary how quickly they can use their unlimited money to change people's minds on big stuff. Big difference between trying to get you to buy something and still be profitable and taking half your pay and using it to convince you of bullshit...
Government propaganda is a different beast mind you, and it's scary how quickly they can use their unlimited money to change people's minds on big stuff. Big difference between trying to get you to buy something and still be profitable and taking half your pay and using it to convince you of bullshit...