On November 18, Chick-Fil-A, America’s most popular chicken sandwich restaurant chain, announced it would no longer support two charitable Christian organizations, The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), which have been criticized by LGBTQ+ rights activists for their opposition to same-sex marriage. Chick-fil-A’s decision to abandon the religious principles of its founder, Truett Cathy, who once stated that he “was not so committed to financial success that” he “was willing to abandon” his “principles and priorities,” is ill-conceived. However, the fast-food chain’s capitulation to progressive zealots, who will never be satisfied with Chick-Fil-A, will do little to bolster its bottom line.
This incident is just the latest in a series of vain corporate attempts to appeal to consumers in the face of mounting political pressure from the left. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the phrase ‘virtue signaling’ make its way into popular discourse, to mark the explosion of companies engaging in the mass marketing of faux concern for marginalized populations. From Gillette’s “The Best Men Can Be” campaign to Nike’s public withdrawal of its Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July trainers for featuring the Betsy Ross flag; big business seems intent on being at the forefront of every progressive cause. If there’s a lucrative opportunity to align with whatever social fad is trendy and profit off consumers’ goodwill, they’ll pounce. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that the boardroom is the new vanguard of social justice. These overtures to ‘woke culture’ amount to nothing more than advertising driven by basic incentives.
Business executives think that by exploiting the politics of race, gender, and sexuality, they are making an indelible impact on the minds of liberals and conservatives alike. They assume that while right-wing pundits will inevitably deride these ads as incendiary and offensive, naive progressive commentators will extol them as profound and venerable. Marketing directors are only concerned with the outcome of this debate insofar as the brand garners headlines.
The upshot for the culture war is that multinationals firms will continue to exacerbate the existing social divide between brand-conscious consumers and ordinary buyers, under the guise of social responsibility, to grow their profit margins. So even if it faces the ire of Fox News and talk radio, big business is convinced that it will be rewarded monetarily for its social justice ploy, in spite of mounting evidence that these sorts of marketing techniques are ineffective. The corporate sphere seems to be taking a cue from President Donald Trump, who in The Art of The Deal states, “bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.” The sad reality is that if companies truly cared about civility and the health of our republic, they would be selling their products by evoking values that unite us rather than tearing us apart.
Bobby Miller
