Triggers and strategies of conservative consumer activism : a critical analysis

Abstract

Many companies have participated in brand activism and corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns promoting different social causes. It has been found that a company’s participation in brand activism or CSR activities can also cause consumer activism if there are political differences between the stance of the brand and the consumer. While the promotion of sexual minorities has increased in marketing, and the acceptance of these campaigns has also increased, trans people are still discriminated against in society. These negative attitudes against trans people were manifested in the reception of Nike’s and Bud Light’s advertising campaign with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which caused outrage among predominantly conservative consumers.

This thesis examines the phenomenon of consumer activism as a response to the campaigns by Nike and Bud Light. The research focuses very much on the role of political ideology in consumer activism and how it guides consumers' actions. The focus was to examine the triggers and strategies of consumer activism and how conservative ideology influences the argumentation of this consumer activism. The data in this thesis is collected from the social media site Reddit, from the r/conservative subreddit, to examine the conservative reactions to these campaigns. The data was collected using the Reddit API to create a corpus of top comments of the past year, including both keywords “Bud Light” and “Dylan Mulvaney” and “Nike” and “Dylan Mulvaney.” The data is analyzed using critical discourse analysis (CDA) to understand the triggers and strategies of conservative consumer activism. CDA concepts of ideology and legitimation are in focus.

The findings of the research align with earlier research since the triggers are mostly related to the viewed political stance of the corporations by the consumer, the breach of the moral foundations of the consumers, and claims of virtue signaling. Most of these triggers relate to the political ideology in a way that the companies are seen aligning with the political opposition, therefore excluding conservatives from their audience. Triggers also included anti-trans ideology—the strategies found in the data, including measures of boycotting, discrediting the brand, and mapping. The strategies often emphasize the importance of their actions; they should prove to the political opposition that companies cannot promote causes that go against the conservative ideology. The findings of this thesis demonstrate how advertising campaigns, including trans women, can create significant consumer activism among conservative consumers. In this consumer activism, the conservative ideology guides the rhetoric against the campaigns that promote the causes they oppose. Consumers see these campaigns as very political in a polarized environment, causing much backlash. The political alignment of the brand is also a factor in consumers' reactions; the consumers perceive the brands as a part of the political opposition.