BLACK RAGE: THE NEW MARKETING STRATEGY.

Hi everyone! It's #MarketingMonday again, apologies for missing last week and I'm hoping I can make up today.

So we all know what's trending for most of Southern Africa today and all through the weekend: #Clicks. Let's dive in...

I'm sure most of us in the #Twitterverse are up to speed with what's going on regarding the #ClicksShutdown. Huge pharmacy and cosmetics company in SA tarnishes black people's hair on their website by comparing it to white people's hair and deemed the latter better in all aspects

Whether it was intentional or not, even after their apology (which many believe is half-assed) they have managed to be the talk of the day and are going through what I would call a "bad hair day." They've been met with threats, boycotts and overall displeasure. Hectic.

It then begs the question: do some of these companies really do this INTENTIONALLY due to the adage of "No such thing as bad publicity"? Because it's not a new phenomenon, many companies have done this in the past, I'll list a few to jog your memory:

- Pepsi and the Kendall Jenner ad
- Dove and the two ladies
- Nivea and the "lighter" skin campaign
- H&M and the monkey hoodie on the black kid

Above listed are some of the most recent campaigns that have garnered outrage from people of colour and some have really paid for it

My particular interest in all of this is the aftermath of all this outrage. Do people forget eventually? Do companies just issue out apologies and then it's business as usual with even greater brand awareness? Are the boycotts actually denting the bottom line?

I'll give an interesting example:

@Quaker have a product called Aunt Jemima that's been on American shelves for over 150 years. The image has always had the image of a black lady who has been deemed a "mammy" figure for a lot of people, black and white alike.

In a Tik Tok video done by @singkirbysing, she went on to explain the racist origins of the product.

She was met by mixed reviews from black folks, some saying they still love the product and won't stop using it, even with its racist past.

I bring the question back:

We know they will face immediate backlash that WILL affect them in the moment. But does blackrage actually do more good than harm for the company in the long run?

I'll pose a poll for this one and you can quote this tweet of what you think.

In my view, I feel marketing with racist connotations is all because of the lack of real representation in the creative decision-making process of corporates and/or their agencies. And I don't mean just "diversifying the boardroom" but people who know what racism looks like

https://twitter.com/fer_machado123/status/1268210491006033931?s=19

One executive at Burger King, to his credit, mentioned including diversity in top decision making seats. I applaud that, but I believe it should go deeper into current decision makers "unlearning" about how racism DOESN'T affect them.

In the same vein of how the world has been dealing with racism recently, just because #blacklivesmatter , doesn't mean white lives don't. If you feel the @Clicks_SA advert doesn't affect you, check your privilege.

@MelanieJaneRice said it better: https://twitter.com/SciTheComedist/status/1302912800474488834?s=19

In my view, I think companies and their creative agencies need to be a little more smarter when advertising to people of colour, especially when they are the majority of their customer base and benefit from their culture.

Many organizations do this, most notable is Nike.

I need to point out again that smarter advertising isn't necessarily about hiring people of colour (though that would be a step in the right direction) but about critical thought and awareness as to what the message being sent out will mean to segments of your target audience.

I'm honestly yet to see the long-term effects of racist advertising to big establishments because this phenomenon has come into recent spotlight due to social media. All I know is that so far, I haven't come across a business that completely shut down because of blackrage.

Blackrage is becoming a thing as everyone has become more "woke." What do you think the future of advertising, being mindful of what it means to people of colour, should look like?

All I know is that in Zimbabwe, we're VERY mindful. (I stand to be corrected, lol)
Till next week!