Trending: Cancel Culture in the Workplace
This seems to be the word of 2020 right? 2020 is the canceled year. Canceled concerts, canceled vacations, canceled festivals, and much more. It’s also the year that many people have jumped on the cancel culture train. Although cancel culture has been around for a while, it just started trending the past couple years.
2020 Cancel Culture Examples
Businesses either choose to remain silent or to vocalize their opinions on certain divisive subjects. Since 2018, many controversial subjects have been dividing citizens and when their favorite companies take a stance that doesn’t agree with theirs, they “cancel” them. Interestingly enough, this has taken a financial toll on many companies. It also can have the opposite affect on companies that vocalize on popular opinions.
Some recent cancel culture examples include:
Aunt Jemima - Quaker Oats is retiring the more than 130-year-old Aunt Jemima brand and logo, acknowledging its origins are based on a racial stereotype
Live PD - A&E has canceled one of the highest-rated shows on basic cable in the wake of protests over the police-related death of George Floyd
Ellen DeGeneres - Ellen DeGeneres has a long history of systematic abuse
Jussie Smollet - In the weeks since "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett first filed a police report alleging he was the victim of a hate crime, the story has taken numerous twists and turns
Cancel culture has been increasingly influential that it has destroyed careers. Take a look at a recent documentary by CBSN that dives into these controversial conversations and features stories of people who experienced being “canceled” and others who have used cancel culture against their favorite celebrities and/or companies.
How Cancel Culture Starts
Cancel culture allows for people to see who their loyal followers are and especially, who is loyal to their movement. Highlighting the s wrongdoings of others forces people to respond. Targets of cancel culture usually commit acts suddenly and out of the blue. This is perfect for social coordination because it creates disagreement about whether the person should be exiled. If everyone agreed that this person or company should be denigrated, then there’s no way to identify friend from foe. But if some agree while others disagree, committed people can be distinguished from adversaries. Rallying around a morally ambiguous transgression and seeing how people react permits recruitment of assenters and targeting of dissenters. - Robert Handerson
Because of this, cancel culture will most likely be sticking around for a while. The social status ends up being rewarding but the dangers of the disagreement are abstract and unique to each situation. The desire for an increase in social status instantly resonates with people while the fear of “being next” is not crossed upon many minds. Think of the Jussie Smollet case as we believed he was the victim of a hate crime because of his race and sexual orientation. Many of us took a stand for social equality when how Smollet is “cancelled” due to his lies and waste of resources when there really are hate crimes continuing to happen across the nation.
When we see groups attack a certain person or company, we are witnessing a foundational practice. Without much thought, this causes us to act on it without any consideration.
The Effects of Cancel Culture & How To Handle It
When brands become targets, the consequences can be severe.
Cancel Culture consequences include:
Damaging and destroying a brands reputation
Ruining an executive’s online reputation, search engine results, and career
Silencing a brand through social media bullying
Boycotting products by demanding advertisers withdraw monetary support and cancel advertising contracts with the brand
Publicly withdrawing financial, political and social support for brands
Here are some ways to combat Cancel Culture:
Donating to charities or organizations
Reemerging after long periods of silence
Rebranding
Renaming the brand
Shifting personal support for companies
Changing public perception by severing ties with influencers who have been boycotted
“Don’t stay silent for fear of unpopularity, be vocal for the sake of being heard!”
