I was excited when the Business of Fashion newsletter hit my inbox with the subject line The Future of Brand Activism. But upon reading, I found it incredibly disingenuous and negligent. The TL;DR is “how to approach thorny socio-political issues under Trump” drawing the conclusion that brands will remain quiet on social issues in fear of backlash. It's important to note there isn't a single mention of Palestine and the genocide we witnessed this past year—so who are we afraid of exactly? Why the silence?
Further disingenuous because the “Trump is boogeyman” trope is so tired, especially given what Americans witnessed socially and economically under a Democratic administration and this past failed election cycle. The article shares that designer Will Chavarria in particular is concerned for his immigrant family under Trump. As part of his fall 2017 collection, Chavarria put models in cages as a statement on the Trump administration’s border policies, which heavily separated children from their families.
The article then went on to highlight Glossier's The New York Times ad featuring a woman’s bare breasts with the tagline: “Vote for your daughter’s future, vote for your grandmother’s legacy.”
I will note that Glossier has been consistently vocal on reproductive rights in the US.
They also posted when Roe v. Wade was shot down in May 2022. But the truth is, most women-owned brands, especially those in the wellness space, failed to speak out in 2022 and and remained silent on their platforms. These liberal leaning brands continue(d) to remain silent when thousands of women and children were slaughtered in Palestine including Glossier.
What kind of selective feminism is this? I’s colonial but never mind addressing that I guess.
The notion that issues like police reform, LGBTQ rights, racial equity, and immigration policies has been more polarizing under Trump is unequivocally false. The issue here is that media platforms and “self-identified” liberal brand founders refuse to hold their own liberal counterparts accountable— normalizing human right violations and atrocities under their preferred candidate and only shedding light on these issues and assumed fear when Trump or Republicans are in office. Where's the righteous outrage and large print ads pressuring the current administration to enshrine our rights?
The article closes with a quote from Glossier's Impact Director, “This isn’t a time for brands to be compelled into silence,” Shariat said. “The question is not, ‘Is it our place?’ The question is, ‘Can we make an impact? Where and how?’”
An Intercept analysis earlier this year showed that major newspapers including The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times all heavily favored Israel in their coverage of the genocide, despite polls showing audiences sympathizing with Palestinians and youth looking to social media platforms for news coverage.
Consumers see right through the bullshit of party-aligned politics and selective nature of media and brand platforms. When are journalists and brand founders going to play catch up here—because brands aren't creating the so-called
Advocacy Action Plan, the consumers are the ones dictating it.
Please read for yourself but this article is biased, out of touch with its readership, and has no journalistic integrity. 🗑️
