From inauguration to insight: how brands can bridge divides in a polarised world
As culture wars intensify, it’s more critical than ever for brands to bridge divides and challenge biases.
In the wake of the 47th President of the USA getting sworn into office, our news and social feeds will be flooded with more polarisation and rage bait than ever.
In this peak culture wars moment, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that huge diversity of thought exists in the UK too. Truly understanding how our consumers and audiences are feeling is vital – especially for an industry that’s incredibly mono-cultural and less good at understanding regular people than we like to think.
Many Brits from all walks of life will enjoy their social feeds being full of content that celebrates an old world order they’re scared of losing. Meanwhile, many women will be steeling themselves for another rise in misogynistic memes like the recently trending “Your body. My choice”.
As an industry, how do we lead in this context? What should we do when the views of consumers (and more of our colleagues than we may realise) are becoming increasingly polarised and entrenched, and frustrations about not feeling seen are running higher than ever?
The answer is to follow the data, and to do what’s best for business. That means generating deeper insight, and then representing consumers better in our products, services and comms.
Be a health hero for women consumers
Women’s bodies are more than an ideological battleground. Our physical health and wellbeing remains woefully underserved in all kinds of ways, due to generations of male-centricity in research and medical practice. Closing the gender data gap and getting accurate research on how your brand can better serve our bodies could make a huge difference to millions of real women’s lives, without feeling performative or like an attack on men.
Neurofen’s work on the gender pain gap is a powerful example here. Likewise everything the British Heart Foundation does to address the little-known fact that heart problems show up differently in women.
Help men’s wellbeing too
This isn’t a one way street though. Fascinatingly, a recent study found that most consumers would rather purchase a sports tech product from a female athlete than a comparable male athlete, so it’s clear that all kinds of opportunities for brands are being squandered right now thanks to big gender blind spots and biases.
Moreover, the fact that apparently gender-neutral products and services have generally been designed default-male doesn’t mean that men are never overlooked or underserved. In fact, when it comes to anything seen as feminine, from parenting to mental health and wellbeing, there’s huge scope for brands and comms to do better for men and boys.
Imagine if more brands took inspiration from Dads Do Hair by Elliott Rae and Dorcas Efayena from AfroPHbabe. Or the arresting sight of baby slings on eminent male statues created by Pregnant Then Screwed’s Sophie Lucas and then The Dad Shift. And what could our storytelling and characterisation learn from the explorations of gender issues in dramas such as ITV’s Playing Nice, Apple TV’s Bad Sisters and Netflix’s Squid Game?
Above all, the critical work Calm does around male mental health should lead us all to more actively address the catastrophic outcomes suffered by too many men and boys in today’s culture.
It doesn’t have to be the heavy stuff
It may feel less daunting for a brand to address gendered issues that aren’t such high-stakes. And that’s fine too, as even apparently trivial things can be surprisingly important. Like pockets are to a lot of women, for example.
With notable exceptions like Lululemon, most clothes brands seem unaware how happy pockets could make a girl. How else do we explain the fact that a recent jeans study found that unlike the same sized men’s jeans, less than half of women’s front pockets could properly fit one of the three leading smartphones, or even a wallet that’s supposedly designed to fit in front pockets.
Demonstrate the joy of bridging divides
Maybe the most glaring opportunity, though, is for brands to use comms to model connection and collaboration across the growing cultural divides.
It’s newsworthy when competitor brands bypass “us vs them” expectations and work together, as we see from Adidas and Puma’s collaboration for Peace One Day back in 2009, and rival supermarkets supporting Sainsbury’s after racist attacks on its Christmas ad in 2020.
It’s also inspiring to see brands like Heineken actively creating understanding across the divides, whether that’s getting people who are Worlds Apart to find unexpected connection instead of antagonism; or Gary Neville and Jill Scott walking in each other’s shoes as commentators in Social Swap.
The way we represent and serve our consumers is a power that our industry could wield more positively. It’s never been more important. And as it’s better for business, there’s really no excuse.
This article appeared in Campaign on the 21st January and was written by Lori Meakin.
About the author
