With social movements like Black Lives matter, #MeToo and Fridays For Future on the rise consumers expect companies to take a stand on these socio-political topics. A new marketing strategy, called brand activism is used to communicate brands values and actions. This paper will conduct a case study of the company Oatly which has been standing out for its daring marketing strategies and analyze their visual communication by using the methods of visual analysis, semiotics and critical discourse analysis. The main research question is how Oalty uses its visual communication to convey brand activism. By analyzing one oat drink packaging, an ad campaign and an Instagram post the findings of this paper conclude that Oatly has several ways of communicating brand activism. These include the use of value based communication, referencing historical activism movements and the sociopolitical theme of promoting a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. The question arises about the authenticity of their opinions and the motives behind their brand activism. So whilst it's clear that companies like Oatly can convey the message of brand activism, this new marketing strategy needs further guidelines and methods of verification to ensure the use of authentic brand activism.

Black Lives Matter rörelsen engagerade människor både internationellt och nationellt under våren 2020. Företag var inte sena med att ta ställning och visa deras stöd i frågan, vilket ledde till olika typer av reaktioner bland deras konsumenter. Denna studie ämnar undersöka svenska konsumenters attityd gentemot företag som använder sig av brand activism som svar på sociala rörelser, där Black Lives Matter valts som empiriskt kontext. Studien ämnar också besvara vilka de viktigaste aspekterna bakom konsumenters attityd är. En förstudie har gjorts genom netnografi och empiri har samlats in genom en webbenkät med 260 svenska respondenter. Studiens analys och resultat tyder på att respondenternas generella inställning till brand activism är positiv i de fall då respondenterna anser att den sociala rörelsen som stöttas är viktig. Det finns dock tre dimensioner som påverkar den övergripande attityden. Dessa är autentiskt innehåll, attityd gentemot företaget och värdet i handlingar. Inom dessa dimensioner utrönas flertalet teman där företagets historia och storlek, innehållet i själva budskapet samt att det genomsyrar organisationen är de viktigaste. Vidare är även temana utbildande, genuin och handlingskraftig kommunikation inom brand activism viktiga delar att ta med sig från resultatet. / The Black Lives Matter movement engaged people both internationally and nationally in the spring of 2020. Companies were not late to join in and show their support in favour of the movement, which led to various reactions among their consumers. This study aims to examine the attitude of Swedish consumers towards companies that use brand activism as a response to social movements, where the Black Lives Matter movement serves as an empirical context. The study also intends to answer what the key aspects behind the studied consumer attitudes are. A prestudy has been done through netnography and empirical data has been collected for the main study through a web survey with 260 Swedish respondents. The study’s analysis and results indicate that the respondents’ general attitude towards the use of brand activism is positive in cases where the respondents believe that the social movement being endorsed is of importance. However, there are three dimensions that affect the overall attitude. These are authentic content, attitude towards the company and the value of actions. Within these dimensions several themes are identified, where the company’s history and size, the content of the message itself and that it permeates the organization are the most important. Furthermore, the themes of educational, genuine and actionable communication within brand activism are also important takeaways from the result.

It seems as of late the most acclaimed advertising campaigns have found a formula to commodify the politically correct through what has come to be described as “woke advertising”. This winning strategy has won public appeal for connecting with an ever-evolving audience that is young, diverse and liberal. Specifically, newcomer agency, Anomaly, has publicly proclaimed themselves as the “change-agent” in the space of advertising, capitalizing on the culture wars by positioning themselves as the leading advertising experts in challenging societal stereotypes and biases. This is a case study that explores one of Anomaly’s 2016 campaigns for Johnnie Walker, “Keep Walking America”, as they attempt to engage in cultural politics with the Latinx community during a period of heightened political tension for immigrant populations. Through a Social Semiotics analysis and postcolonial criticism, the focus of this thesis is to explore how Johnnie Walker leveraged woke capital and consequently attempted to represent the lived experiences of marginalized groups whose stories are generally silenced.

The trend to take a stand in campaigns has been identified as an upcoming phenomenon and the term brand activism has been discovered in the context. One of the challenges that brands are facing is to keep the core identity and at the same time communicate responsible positions that consumers demand without getting inauthentic. Since little or no research has been done from the brand's perspective the study has found a research gap that could be filled by examining how their brand identity and political or social messages affect their campaigns. The purpose of the study is to look at three brands and their campaigns in relation to their brand identity and their role within the campaigns. Furthermore, the study investigates if there are any connections between brands taking a stand and brand activism. To achieve the aim of this research, a qualitative method has been conducted based on semi-structured interviews with three types of brands and an expert in communication. The results showed that brand activism in some cases has been used as a tool for brands to challenge structures and cause a dialogue, but the result also identified how brands manage to stay authentic while communicating societal issues.

This study examines two marketing campaigns on the social media platform Twitter by the brand Nike, with the campaigns involving American football player Colin Kaepernick and tennis player Serena Williams respectively. The study specifically explores how Nike utilizes socially and politically progressive values in these marketing   campaigns and how users then respond to it on Twitter, with the source material consisting of four Twitter-posts, two by Nike and one each by the two athletes involved, as well as the replies by other Twitter-users to those posts. The replies to these four Twitter-posts were then sorted into reply types for each post, in other words categorized according to the sentiments and attitudes in the replies that were most prominently and frequently expressed. A grounded theory approach was used thereafter in order to apply relevant theoretical perspectives to the reply types and original posts, through which the source material was split into several analytical themes. The theoretical perspectives used in the analysis were Rosalind Gill’s postfeminist sensibility, Ron Von Burg and Paul E. Johnson’s writings on nostalgia as a critical perspective, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s floating signifier concept, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva¨s racial grammar theory, Susan Cahn’s writings on female athlete stereotypes, and Lauren Copeland’s writings on postmaterialism. The analysis showed that Nike utilized socially progressive causes such as racial and gender equality in an individualistic way by conveying them through the identities of Williams and Kaepernick in their Twitter-posts. It also showed that the replies to the marketing in turn also focused on the identities of the athletes, with repliers either declaring their approval or disapproval of Nike and their marketing campaigns based on whether they were ethically and ideologically aligned with the progressive causes and values that the athletes were proxies for in their respective marketing campaigns. Ultimately, this study revealed an individualization of political expression on social media, both when a corporation like Nike uses it to improve their brand image and in how individuals engage with political and social issues.

During the last few years, Cancel culture became a significant part of the social mediaculture. The new phenomenon aims to call out people or companies that have acted in a wayt hat does not go with the values of the consumers, which leads to a canceling. Companies got canceled and had to adjust their crisis communication to the consumers in order to repair the companies image. The consumers in question are mainly Millennials and Generation Z who tend to be ethical consumers that focus on social injustice. This leads to bigger pressure on companies to act and adjust their crisis communication accordingly. The purpose of this study is to investigate what kind of crisis communication could be used during a canceling. A statement from two canceled companies, Oatly and Starbucks, will be examined based on their crisis strategies and rhetorical strategies. Both companies claim that their actions in areas, such as climate change and social injustice, are correct and they try to convince thee thical consumers that they can be trusted as an ethical company. The study revealed that both companies used established strategies in their crisis communication, which did differ from one another. Both companies claim that their actions in areas, such as climate change and social injustice, are correct and they try to convince the ethical consumers that they can be trusted as an ethical company. Oatly communicated in a transcendent way and stood firmly by their actions, whereas Starbucks promised to change their actions.

Date: 3 June Level: Master Thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Paul Kato (95/03/11) and Henrik Aronsson (95/10/29) Title: Brand Activism, does it work? Tutor: Edward Gillmore Keywords: Brand activism, brand equity, social activism, attitudes, woke washing Research questions: a. How is the consumer-based brand equity affected by a company’s use of social activism in its marketing? b. How does this in turn affect consumer purchasing engagement? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumers respond tosocial activism advertisements and how it influences their purchaseengagement. Method: The method used in this thesis is a quantitative research with anabductive research approach. The data has been collected through anonline survey and received 504 responses. Conclusion: Advertising that contains social activism has an overly positive impact onconsumer attitudes, purchasing engagement, and corporate consumerbasedbrand equity.

This paper examines images used to market clothing lines by the affordability-centered Swedish food company Eldorado as well as from the luxury fashion brands Prada and Gucci. Through a qualitative socio-semiotic approach, the images are compared and analyzed in relation to the contemporary societal context of a westernized and postmodern consumer culture. At the basis of the analysis is the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu concerning taste and class, as well as writings on postmodernism and class in relation to counter-hegemonic consumerism. Findings suggest that the luxury fashion brands exhibit a distinction of taste tied to affluency, whereas Eldorado can be interpreted as ironizing tropes and clichés seen in such imagery. A discussion is subsequently raised, debating the paradox of inserting counter-cultural values into the marketing of commodified goods.

Woke-washing gives companies the possibility to take advantage of the consumers social, environmental, and political values to improve business. In contrast to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and green-washing, woke-washing is a new term in the global north andthere is a lack of understanding to what extent it is relevant to the global south contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore how, and to what extent woke-washing arguments are usedwithin the published peer-review literature focusing on CSR discourse among business firms with operations in developing countries. The study was conducted through a structured literature review and an interpretative content analysis, and the results were discussed with thehelp of intersectionality and the decolonial approach of border thinking. This study concludes that arguments related to woke-washing are to be found within the literature on companies CSRoperations in developing countries. However, the power structures that affects who conduct the “washing” vary across developing countries. The woke-washing phenomenon that connects to the arguments in the literature shows that through CSR-initiatives companies, operating indeveloping countries, try to satisfy consumers. Since the values of the consumer in the global north differs from the values in the global south, the consumer from the global north alsocontributes to woke-washing. This is not true for all CSR-operations by businesses in the global south, however, it is a large enough occurrence that the discussion needs more attention in future research.

Följande studie undersöker ifall woke-washing förekommer eller inte i Belvedere Vodkas reklamfilm Belvedere Present Daniel Craig, Directed by Taika Waititi: Director’s Cut där Daniel Craig spelar rollen som ‘sig själv’ men samtidigt förklaras ha blivit humoristiskt koreograferad. Detta görs genom frågeställningarna: “Hur representeras maskulinitet genom framförande och kostym av Daniel Craig i rollen som ‘sig själv’?” samt “Hur tolkas gestaltningen av mansrollerna när Belvedere Vodka beskriver Craig som humoristiskt koreograferad?”. Genom en kvalitativ sociosemiotisk analys studeras ett urval där det genom resultatet tolkas som att det sker en stereotypisering av både hypermaskulinitet och queer maskulinitet i syfte att ifrågasätta genus som social konstruktion. Analysen kommer dock fram till slutsatsen att Belvedere Vodka är mer engagerade i att bevara en stereotypisk relation mellan man och sprit snarare än hur mansrollerna representeras. Konsekvensen av detta blir att repliken “Finally” misstolkas (i jämförelse med produktionsteamets uttalade syfte), vilket leder till att den flamboyanta gestaltningen upplevs som förminskande och avskräckande i jämförelse med den heteronormativa mansrollen. Diskussionen kommer slutligen fram till att en marginaliserad grupp ännu en gång inte får möjligheten att representera sig själv, samtidigt som behovet av att kategorisera sexuell orientering för att kunna avgöra ifall appropriering sker eller inte blir fortsatt problematisk.  Medieproduktionen som framförs i designdokumentationen baseras på en studie i sexuell hälsa och hur visuell kommunikation gällande detta ämne riktar sig till ungdomar. Medieproduktionen är utförd av Jennie Eklund, Amanda Lindh och Helena Ljunggren.