It really shows that the idea that companies are just being capitalists and doing what’s popular, in terms of who they do ads with/for, just isn’t true. When a minority group of conservatives freak out over promotions that a majority of Americans are fine with, the dynamics change completely. Everything’s so polarized - and more importantly, one sided in its polarization - that the most minor gesture in certain directions will now be weaponized by some conservatives (and years after the fact - e.g. Jack Daniels and Drag Race) and turn into a big deal, but there’s no equivalent acts by those on the left. Only the biggest ad campaign involving someone really reprehensible gets a reaction from the left, and even then not the kind of organized hissy-fit we’re seeing being thrown by the right now. The kind of small advertising acts the right are freaking out don’t get a response from the left, regardless of who’s involved. It ends up wildly unbalancing who gets attention in ad markets and what kind of popular, mainstream views don’t get mentioned, and what groups don’t get representation. It’s a return to the culture wars of the '80s, where far-right religious groups held outsized cultural power to censor what got said, only now there’s recognition that these groups don’t represent the majority.
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