Not clicking the link because it sounds insufferable.

Just re the post title: I was imagining the mayonnaise-for-brains person who thinks "But It's Still on AT[&]T's Network" is the caveat the first part of the sentence requires. Rather than the idea that AT&T is, or even could be, woke.

There's a lot of ideological grifting out there.

I understand the allure of going to brands that don't explicitly claim to hate you and that your personal success is a problem to be solved (I know that claim might seem contentious, but that's how a lot of people feel), but of course most of these companies are scams (just like these woke companies pretending to give a rats ass about BLM or LGBTQ is a grift). That's usually the nature of branding.

True story here: the reason companies pretend to care about this stuff is that a 2015 study showed that 70% of millennials claimed they would be more likely to pay more for a brand that had supported causes, and in 2014, Pew research found that millennials were more liberal and less conservative -- on social views, millennials were 60% to say their views became more liberal.

Advertisers, particularly on big brands, are usually the last to the party when it comes to social trends according to at least one advertising commentator, Terry O'Reilly.

Because advertisers are so risk averse, they're still running with a largely pre-Trump, pre-COVID playbook. The reality is that both those events had major ramifications, and the ramifications themselves had knock on effects that are unintuitive if you don't consider them or the effects beyond them. It was a cultural tsunami and what we're seeing now seems like just the beginning of a major shift for all the players on the board.

One big change is a loss of trust in establishment figures across the board, and that turned on a dime in the grand scheme of things. That's why suddenly you've got these problems, and advertisers weren't ready for it. Sea changes like this when they happen take a lot of time to run through the system, just like it did when everyone lost trust in government in the latter half of the GWB administration. Back then a lot of companies screwed up too, acting like it was still 1995 or even 2003.

These smaller opportunistic companies are trying to use their greater mobility to strike at an opportunity, but I think they're making a mistake. I don't think most people want to give up on left wing brands for right wing brands. I think they want companies to butt out.

Do you really want your cell phone provider expressing their fake opinion on abortion? Is that their really their business? Do you really want to make sure every chocolate bar you eat, every computer you buy, every can of soda or stick of butter or carton of eggs to be telling the world how to live their lives and how to vote in the next election? "What does this stick of butter say about my opinions around tax policy? Should I pick it, or this other stick of butter that has my opinions about the Rwandan genocide?" How exhausting!

Given that advertising is the last guy to the party, it'll be a long time until we find out for sure.

https://12ft.io/www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/agencies-are-carving-out-niche-socially-responsible-marketing-168592/

https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2014/03/2014-03-07_generations-report-version-for-web.pdf

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/15/americans-trust-in-scientists-other-groups-declines/