9 years ago, just five weeks into this administration’s first one, I wrote a piece for Time titled “It’s Time for Every Brand to Pick a Side.”
9 years later, just one year into this second one, both the headline and the urgency implicit in it are truer now than then.
This isn’t about partisanship nor reasonable differences of policy opinion. As relates to this president, it never has been. It’s about values, morals, truth, decency and democracy.
9 years later, I write again because I feel impotent. Because I don’t know what to do. Because I’m sad. Because I’m terrified. What’s happening is unfathomable and isn’t normal even if it’s been normalized.
I recognize my call to action and urgency in 2017 was “safer” for brands than it is today. Proof itself of why the call to action is more urgent now than then.
When democracy and dissent are punished, when standing up for values you believe to be fundamental risk the wrath of White House condemnation, boycott (true in 2017, too), and other federally sponsored forms of punishment, the potential costs of action, of not capitulating, are real and borne by CEOs, CMOs, employees, and shareholders.
But that you fear federal reprisal is why this moment demands more from more of us than we’re giving it.
I really don’t mean to moralize—but believe this to be a moral crisis and so I am. The costs of continued inaction, capitulation and normalization, of not standing for what you stand for nor pushing back against what you stand against, are mounting morally and economically.
Nine years later, and America’s lesser angels are having their day, day after day. Certainly now and perhaps forever changing what America is and stands for. So what will we do?
I don’t know, and I understand it’s far easier for me to type « do something » than for any brand to do something.
I know what it feels like to be caught between a rock and a hard place. But I’m also certain the hard place will get harder still if brands and companies keep Ostrich-ing this. So too do I know that doing nothing because we fear anything we do won’t be enough can’t—under these circumstances—be reason for continued silence and inaction.
What I do know is that these times demand more from our non-elected leaders than they’re getting. I do know it’s yet again time for brands to pick sides. Because if it’s not too late now, it likely will be soon.
And then what?
(Any and all constructive thoughts on what I (or we) can do are appreciated.)