This paper will analyze five advertisements from Nike: For once, Don’t Do It, P&G (Procter & Gamble): The Choice, The Look, The Truth Is #BlackLivesMatter of NBA and Disney: Speaking Up Because Black Lives Matter that campaigns as current examples of commodity activism and the legitimation of corporate power in product and brand advertising. Goldman and Papson (2006) argue that the semiotics of branding bleed into blurry capitalist meta-narratives. Banet-Weiser (2020) emphasizes campaigns that initiate social change; social movements generate enormous profits for brands. Nike was the first company to go public with a commercial grappling with the racist problem of “For Once, Don't Do It." Since then, Procter & Gamble, Disney, NBA have consistently published advertisements promoting the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in a strained environment around the BLM movement. Banet-Weiser (2020) claims that the ties between consumers, political philosophies and consumer citizenship are indicators of this activism form. Banet-Weiser (2020) claims that the contemporary neoliberal world will find and articulate itself as authentic or encouraged in digital areas with infinite possibilities. All of these brands are realized that they are approaching contested territories. Some of these ads are listed as tensions, contractions, and ambivalence of #BLM's branded activism and corporate endorsements regarding cultural awareness.
P&G (Procter & Gamble): The Choice is opening the video is a series of rhetorical questions appearing on the body of a black person, sending viewers into the thought line "where are we to go?". The next scene comes with whites on a black person's body, emphasizing the community's responsibility to combat racism and provoke inner self-reflection of whoever is avoiding racism in America. The Choice serves as an invitation to those who remain silent to become allies or activists to end racism. The Look condemns the stigmatizing gazes a man of colour in America experiences every day. Goldman and Papson (2006) are concerned in crises where culture is indiscriminately manipulated as an economic advantage to improve corporate brand values. The Choice made conscious of the unfortunate division between people; the message they conveyed in it makes people feel disrespectful and fragmented. This campaign thus aims to enhance the market identity instead of endorsing a single P&G commodity. The advertisement mechanism will symbolize the support of the BLM movement by buying P&G goods and offering the public a feeling of belonging to modern beliefs. Goldman and Papson (2006) argue that branding is an institutions-based way of essentially materializing the political economy's indications to distinguish an asset from the competition and boost its reputation.
On the contrary, The Choice has taken a different direction from The Look (2019), generating interplay between them. The Look is holding a mirror to the implicit prejudice in humanity. Instead of framing The Choice with the injustices that people of colour suffer, P&G often points to whites' responsibility and shows them their role in behaving and resisting this stereotyping. In The Choice, the BLM movement could cause far deeper divides not just with companies going head to head but also with those who approach this movement. Disney has adopted a stand that also produces a more balanced and neutral ad supporting the BLM initiative.Arvidsson (2005) states that brands are structures that allow people to build trust to be directly respected. These ads have affected consumerism and ethics, making consumers a pivotal aspect of the modern commercial age. These advertisements shift the way customers buy goods, which leads consumers to make choices based on their ethical values. Goldman and Papson (1996) state that ads are often configured to transfer the value of a meaning mechanism to another system, and since ads for consumer products are configured to allow the meaning exchange; corporate ads are structured to create a corporate name asset. Corporations may concentrate on how to market and gain consumers, make customers understand the brand and eventually boost revenue. Goldman and Papson (2006) argue branding is used as a method to drive up valuations of stocks and share values, and the method of branding bears on capital formation, and the calculation of brand properties is of concern.
The NBA and Nike advertisements speak out in favour of diversity and racial issues, but Nike has the upper hand thanks to past BLM promotional advocates. This gives Nike an advantage in making bold views about the BLM over its competitors, and the fact that they did so, the fact that the title of the ad also proved "For Once. Don't Do It "instead of the familiar" Just Do It. "In" The Truth Is #BlackLivesMatter, "the NBA emphasizes that racism is everywhere and points to communal silences. Assembly is not the right thing, and the phrase "White silence is black death" is a controversial statement. In the ad, NBA also promises to promote equality; NBA seems as it increasingly controversial form to promote the brand, while Nike's "For Once, Don't Do It" frankly opposes the issue of racism with the message "Don’t pretend there’s not a problem in America"… "Let’s be part of the change.”. Banet-Weiser (2020) emphasizes that commodities activism converts social and political activism into marketable commodities directed at empowerment like most types of social or political activism. In their response to societal issues, Nike and the NBA are a distinct method. Banet-Weiser (2020) claims that commodity advocacy is a persuasive example of its ambivalence mechanisms inside branding languages and reasoning. The NBA expresses its value as an entity; both tend to commodity activism, which Nike portrays as a position but is accompanied by a call to Americans that encourages responsibility from company to audience. Arvidsson (2005) emphasizes that the essential commodity for businesses like Nike is their company's public standing, and the patterns of public communication directly affect the valuation of stock sold on the capital markets in the type of "brand value."
Goldman and Papson (1996) state that consumer products' commercials help develop material signs; business ads build company signs to create legitimacy signs. Wernick's explanation that advertisement is a core element of fostering capitalism and advertising society applies not just to the marketing of these similar practises but also to them. Nike, the advertisement is not about their products, but the ad genuinely prefers to concentrate on the BLM movement message that extends precisely to the advertisement society. Nike sold its hype and bundled a message to boost Nike's positive perception by the public. Wernick (1991) believes that advertisement affects the cultural frameworks and belief structure on which social culture is constructed, with individual customers' involvement, and the favourable image of the company, its products and services is crucial to create consumption. Banet-Weiser (2020) states that while the achievement of benefit drives brands, this kind of brand activism can provide consumers with a specific representation of the brand using political concerns, brands can become a forum for individual involvement in social movements. Disney ad empowering Black Lives Matter commercial, which begins with soft music as the words "Listening," "Learning," and "Healing," "We stand for Humanity," "We stand for Solidarity," and "We stand for Justice" then appear on the screen. The advertisement for Disney is another example that shows how brand image and activism optimization can be offered and achieved through the campaign. There is no dialogue, but the following text appears on the screen, with no controversial statement of how hardship and negative energy. It is already establishing a healthy empowering to BLM movement and mentally with an appropriate promotion culture.
References
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NBA. (2020). The Truth Is #BlackLivesMatter [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hJIuVvVQKk
Nike. (2020). For once, Don’t Do It [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drcO2V2m7lw
P&G (Procter & Gamble). (2020). The Choice [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7bnS8R994I
P&G (Procter & Gamble). (2020). The Look [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJav36Nbn58&t=43s
Wernick, A. (1991). Promotional Culture Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression. Newbury Park: Sage.
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