The biggest companies in the world want you to believe that they suddenly grew a conscience. Over the past two weeks, over 750 companies including Coca-Cola, Verizon, Hershey and Starbucks have joined a boycott called #StopHateforProfit formed by the ACLU, the NAACP and others. The expressed goal is to force Facebook to censor hate speech and misinformation in posts on facebook and Instagram. But, as Jack Shafer at Politico identified, the true goal is to score a risk-free PR win. After all, as Shafer says, "There can’t be a single corporate leader who hasn’t long been aware of the nasty bilge that flows through Facebook, and kept the ad money flowing anyway."Joining this boycott poses no risk for companies who were already looking for excuses to slash budgets in the midst of a horrific recession. As far back as April 7 of this year, the business press was reporting that 81% of advertisers were deferring media buys. The following three months did nothing to nudge loose budgets.
Throughout the pandemic, consumer confidence remained below pre-pandemic levels and with a second wave of infections out of states like Texas, Arizona and Florida, there's little reason to believe confidence will suddenly shoot back up any time soon. A June prediction by a major media agency of a 13% drop in ad spending seems conservative now, even compared to the 4% increase that the same media agency, GroupM, predicted before the pandemic started. When recession hits, ad budgets are the first to go. And realistically there's no way advertisers will start spending at all this year like they would if the pandemic hadn't happened. As Shafer writes: "No large company is going to suffer economically by eliminating Facebook advertising 1) during a historically slow sales month, which 2) is also happening during a recession, and which 3) also coincides with the low-spending period of semi-quarantine.
Asking a corporation to boycott Facebook in July 2020 is a little like asking a casual drinker to observe Lent by giving up alcohol in a dry county."To explain why so many companies are really joining this fake boycott, then, look at the awkward position brands have been left in by months of lockdowns and civil unrest. The instant that the pandemic started, brands banded together in a sort of messaging pact, in which they all decided to broadcast the exact same emotionally-neutral message together in order to avoid saying anything distinctive and therefore risk any one company inducing an emotion other than indifference. That shtick wore very thin very quickly. When brands could no longer say "we're in this together," what COULD they say with the tiny budgets still allotted for people in PR, social media marketing and advertising?
Again, I'll let Shafer write it for me: "Bowing to the #StopHateforProfit activists’ campaign...affords CEOs a chance to claim a higher moral standing in the public’s eyes."Who needs to spend on advertising when you can be part of a corporate social responsibility movement for the price of a press release, a tweet and an excuse to save money by not advertising when you weren't going to in the first place?
The shorter stuff
After Gaspar Noé's "Love" went viral on Netflix, will studios engineer movies for TikTok the way labels do songs? (Variety)
The Tucker Carlson 2024 wave is cresting three years too early, in my opinion. Remember Howard Schultz 2020? Kanye has the right sense of electoral campaign timing. (Politico)
Even Jon Stewart and Rose Byrne look bored in the boring poster and ads for "Irresistible." (Image)
"There’s a finite number of true iconic brands in the world, especially in the world of storytelling," says the guy who just rebooted "Unsolved Mysteries," tautologically. (NYT)
The 21-year-old Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd thriller "Double Jeopardy" is trending on Netflix right now. (Image)
🌀Special "Read This" Section
Alec MacGillis wrote a harrowing look into the predatory dollar store industry, with an offhand detail about fruitcakes lasting a really long time that sent me down a Johnny Carson YouTube rabbit-hole. (NYer)
The best thing I read this week was this lovable profile of Charlie Kaufman by Jon Mooallem, which is so full of humility and spontaneity that it felt like a cathartic writing workshop for three: Kaufman, Mooallem and reader. (NYT Mag)
Rebekah Neumann is re-branding the bizarre WeWork school as SOLFL. (Bloomberg)
Amanda Hess on my favorite movie ever, "Wayne's World," and Garth Algar as role model. This is now officially Stupefy Canon. (NYT)
I told you Netflix is the only institution we trust. (Bloomberg)
Why add a disclaimer to "Mad Men" when anyone who watches it is coastal elite, anyway. (Deadline)
“I’m not sure I’d classify myself as an entertainment enthusiast,” says Quibi CEO Meg Whitman. And Katzenberg's inspirations? "America's Funniest Home Videos," Siskel and Ebert, and Jane Fonda’s exercise tapes. (Vulture)
David Roth's been writing the definitive analysis of Trump-era aesthetics and might be my favorite cultural critic right now. From "Starship Troopers," he manages to reflect how our culture feels "so helplessly recursive." (NYer)
🌀Special Twitter Memoirs Section
I loved this excerpt from Shayla Lawson's book on Black Twitter being a house party invite she missed out on: "Twitter is a battle I have tried to fight and have lost in so many ways." (Vulture)
Marie Le Conte: "If you know that everything you do is being watched by everyone around you because a lot of people want you — anyone! — to slip up to alleviate the boredom, you will start going mad." (The Critic)
Special "Wish I Didn't Know" Section
Jack Harlow something something TikTok something something "bop" something something "song of the summer." (Vulture)
Not only has The Army been using eSports to recruit, they've also been using baby talk. (Polygon)
The only thing interesting about this absolute non-story, that John Krasinski wore a wig on The Office, is how it illuminates just how wildly popular the show is. I can barely find an outlet that didn't cover it. (VF)