Do Culture Wars Make It Harder for Brands to Keep a Social Media Presence?

Sprinkle, Sprinkle, Social Star – Understanding gender dynamics in marketing

The Barbie movie (July 2023) was a massive global box office success, and pure marketing genius from a previously struggling brand. To me, though, it was more than just entertainment and good marketing. It threw a spotlight on the growing gender divide in society.

It’s not a Barbie World
Years of championing women’s equality, working towards eradicating the gender pay gap, and speaking up against abuse through the #MeToo movement has resulted in great benefits, but has had unfortunate side effects. As battle lines are drawn, technology, especially social media, has increased, not decreased, the polarisation between genders, driving a wedge and widening the rift. 

Social media bubbles are notorious for encouraging extremes, creating echo chambers where personal views are amplified and civilised debate is rare. Any given app can offer widely different experiences for users based on individual interests and preferences. Still, there is some opportunity for users to burst these bubbles (by accident or design) and be exposed to ideas and views that they don’t instinctively agree with.

He said, she said…
In China, where social media is increasingly gender segregated, even accidental online interactions between men and women are becoming scarce. With men likelier to be on Baidu Tieba, and women more often using Little Red Book, their often antagonistic views tend to be reinforced. This segregation can be beneficial for brands aiming to target consumers more effectively, but has a negative effect on society as a whole.

Worsening the situation are social media ‘personalities’ like Andrew Tate who capitalise on the underlying friction between men and women to fabricate animosity. Tate coats his messages with a veneer of financial and life advice, but the substance of his communication is often outrightly misogynistic. From the opposite perspective, the term “sprinkle sprinkle” has entered common usage across social media, with SheraSeven using it to bookend her advice on how to attract and manipulate affluent men to pay for her (mostly female) audience’s lifestyles. Andrew Tate and SheraSeven’s content racks up millions of views, giving us evidence that their opinions resonate and add fuel to the fire in the growing culture war between genders. 

To inclusivity – and beyond!
Recently we’ve seen brands charge into culture battles faster than the speed of Bud Light, and not always successfully. The brewer infamously alienated their core consumer by partnering with trans influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney, tanking sales and profits in the US. Given these risks, cynics might argue that brands are there just to make money and should focus on profit and nothing else. However, that flies in the face of the growing importance that consumers (especially younger consumers) place on brands to align with their moral beliefs. 

Taboo topics such as racism have little room for nuance, and brands should take a very clear stand, but I argue that there’s a third way to deal with culturally divisive topics. Instead of ignoring them or choosing a side in complex debates where opinions and beliefs are deeply held, brands can aim to promote understanding and build empathy among consumers.

This may sound like pie in the sky, but it’s far from a pipe dream. Brands have launched incredibly successful campaigns that focus on creating shared consumer experiences, such as Heineken’s “Worlds Apart”, or build empathy, such as Cadbury’s “There’s A Glass and A Half in Everyone” in the past. 

Why burn bridges when you can build them?
According to existentialist philosopher Martin Buber, shared experiences allow individuals to foster a deeper understanding for each other. Similarly, phenomenologist Alfred Schutz argued that empathy arises when individuals can relate to each other's experiences. With this in mind, brands don’t just have to react to consumer culture, but can help shape it through their actions. So, this is a slightly idealistic call for brands to do better and work towards building bridges in society to provide an antidote to the culture wars instead of burning them and making things worse.