Telstra and marriage equality: when the bandwagon loses a wheel
Telstra is today facing a backlash over its decision to step back from the debate over gay marriage. Dan Ilic argues that the telco has taken a major risk with its reputation by suddenly jumping off the bandwagon.
Remember when it was cool for companies to have a social conscience? Save the environment, reduce carbon, fair trade this and organic that?
And, of course, marriage equality; everyone loves equal rights? right? Well, almost everyone…
Jumping onboard the idea that people should be treated equally sounded great to the majority of people around the country, some polls had support for marriage equality at 80%, and a market of 80% of Australians sounds great to every chief sustainability officer.
So, making a token gesture and jumping on the band wagon seemed like a great idea – great for customers who align with those values and great for employees who support marriage equality. It’s a no-brainer.
A couple of years ago marriage equality seemed to be a debate that would bounce around the walls of parliament house. Confined to NGOs, religious lobby groups, politicians, and people who cared. Arguments about whether different kinds of post-dinner desserts would or wouldn’t be made for different types of people.
Then, arguments about which room different people could and could not go into to shit out that cake – even if they’ve had a bit to drink and urgency is a priority – would be played out in the safety of Canberra.
These questions are asinine, but complex and they are deserving of debate by asinine and complex people called ‘politicians’.
Up until Tony Abbott’s captains call for a plebiscite, the issue of marriage equality would be battled out in the bloodied walls of parliament house. The rest of us, corporations included, would be sanitised from the fight.
But the battle has moved from Canberra to where actual real people live. The bandwagon has hit a speed bump.
It’s now in the streets. And the quality of the debate over the next year will be significantly reduced, with both sides battling for the ‘hates and minds’ of everyday people.
As the dialogue heats up the ‘no-brainer’ has become ‘brain-dead’.
Now being bullied into walking back their support for marriage equality, Telstra is set to lose another kind of customer, one that championed them regardless of their spotty coverage and insane prices. I was one of them.
I stuck with them because they serviced the bush, invested in great community projects across a range of diverse issues, and they even have a little acknowledgment of country in their stores. This was an Australian company for all Australians.
Corporations such as Telstra work hard on branding in order to reach out to community to prove they’re good citizens. People learn to love these brands, they wear them like a new pair of good-fitting pants.
Making a stand for, on balance, the greater good, feels great. It should feel great.
It’s nice to be nice. But when it gets too complicated to be nice, corporations can’t afford to have a point of view, because being courageous in the face of adversity isn’t how corporations make money.
Dropping a position that’s gone from a cultural love-in to a cultural battle-ground in order renew a handful of mobile phone contracts proves this.
Changing your stance when the wind is right is smart business. Donald Trump knows this.
Telstra is the only major mobile provider that has jumped off the marriage equality bandwagon. It’s taking a stand against taking a stand, aside from unreliable data coverage and sky-high prices, it’s now the only major thing that sets Telstra apart from Vodafone, Optus or Virgin.
Companies change vendors every day but it’s not every day that they bully a vendor into dropping a public stance on equal rights.
Telstra could have said goodbye to the Catholic Church as a client and let it take its tax-free dollars to another mobile phone provider like Dodo, Aldi, Amaysim or Kogan – none of which hold a position on marriage equality, but have great deals.
As of today I have jumped off the Telstra bandwagon to save my conscience, and it turns out, heaps of money at the same time. Double win for me.
Dan Illic is head of content at Downwind Media and also the host of the A Rational Fear podcast
Update April 14: Telstra has today issued the following statement from Andy Penn, CEO Telstra:
Following yesterday’s marriage equality debate around Telstra, I want to be clear about Telstra’s perspective as our long track record in diversity and inclusion was generally overlooked.
We clearly need to make this simple statement: Telstra supports marriage equality as part of the great importance we place on diversity and standing against all forms of discrimination.
Equally we recognise there are many and varied views and if we are all truly accepting of diversity, there should be room made for all of them.
While Telstra continues to support Australian Marriage Equality and has not changed that position, we have made a decision not to publicly participate in the debate further. This is because the proposed plebiscite process gives everyone an opportunity to contribute and out of respect, it is important we allow them to voice their own views.
However, this position was interpreted by some as us abandoning our tradition of supporting diversity and inclusion, be it in the community or in our workplace. This could not be further from the truth.
Telstra really does need to grow a set of balls.
Any brand that jumps on a band wagon then bails just as quickly, makes everybody wonder what you actually stand for.
Nothing against the church they’ve expressed the beliefs and even though I don’t agree with them, I do believe in their right to do so.
But shame on you Telstra. You look like the unpopular kid in the playground who’ll do whatever it takes to be seen one of the cool kids.
It appears your brand values are as crumbly and unreliable as your product and service.
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This is awesome! Love this article. 🙂
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I live in the bush. I have no choice on provider. It is Telstra or no communication! However I am damn cranky enough I would prefer to live in a non-communication bubble than be in cahoots with this sort of flip-flopping corporate strategy. Our area is reeling from multiple paedophilia cases all linked to the church… Yet Telstra chooses that over Equal Love. Bonkers.
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It’s the Catholic Church that should be ashamed of itself. Bullying, self-serving & anachronistic.
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Dan is the man. Thank you for this article.
“Telstra is the only major mobile provider that has jumped off the marriage equality bandwagon”. Although I was told by a staff member that they haven’t but to me it feels like they have.
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Good on you Telstra, about time you see the light, may you did get lost and confused for a while. but glad you cam to your senses.
Thanks for this article which brought to my attention the ignorant companies supporting gay and lesbian marriage. looks like I’ll be changing banks now.
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Yes, Telstra should rightly be smashed for their ridiculous stance. But the Catholic Church is the true villain here. If there was a god, he would be appalled at their behavior!!
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Oh FFS, Telstra did not jump off the gay marriage bandwagon, there is no evidence that the carrier did anything of the sort. This was all sparked by a sensationalist beat-up article by The Australian, and now we have people expecting an early exit without penalty from their Telstra contacts because of this? Good luck to them but Telstra has no obligation to allow an early contract exit without penalty because nothing in their product offer has changed – not the price, not the coverage, not the speed, not any formerly free inclusions – anybody wanting an early exit from their Telstra contract on the spurious grounds of The Oz article should be made to pay the full payout fee.
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Will be dumping #telstra now like the author stated and the fight for equality still stands. If Telstra fail to allow me to leave I’ll consider taking it to the anti discrimination board and TIO on the grounds that they we’re allowing the church group to leave while under contract but were bullied into it.
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Such a beat-up of a story. Why should corporations pick a side on a debate like this, where their customers would hold a variety of views? The only bullies here are the gay-marriage advocates whose tolerance levels don’t extend to understanding that good people may quite reasonably hold varying views on this subject. I’m with Telstra on this one. There’s no reason at all for them to be involved in this debate. (Just concentrate on giving us better phone service…).
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Brand Fail
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Dan, good decision to leave based on the right beliefs.
But just checking.
I see Optus and Virgin on the newspaper ad, but no Vodafone, nothing on their website.
Did you jump onto the right horse?
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And today Telstra are running Facebook ads with two men curled up in each others arms on the couch with their dog enjoying their Telstra internet.
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This wouldn’t happen if Buckman was at the helm.
My Telstra mobile contract expires in 5 months. We have Telstra broadband installed in 3 houses. These contract expires in a year. Goodbye Telstra. Only with your network due to your “extensive national coverage” but Vodafone has made leaps and bounds in recent years so I am switching. Not supporting love between two consenting adults is the final straw. Plus, your recent outages prove your network is not as robust as it used to be.
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@RightHorse…. I checked via the Australian Marriage Equality website, Telstra hasn’t asked to withdraw their logo from it. They have merely refused to participate in communicating their point of view moving forward. I have learned today that Amaysim also backs Marriage Equality.
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Telstra’s statement is silly. They say they support Marriage Equality but say they won’t publicly participate in supporting it.
…so they agree with it, but they just won’t talk about it, because they want to support other “views” as well.
Riiiggghht. In this day and age I can’t even believe there is a marriage equality ‘debate’ – there shouldn’t be a debate and Telstra should not be supporting this debate. There is no other side to this, it is just about equal opportunity, if you don’t agree with it, don’t marry same sex yourself. We need big companies like Telstra to get a grip.
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The only solution from here is for Telstra to say ‘Yep, we made a mistake. We will continue to actively campaign for Equality’. Blame it on human error…
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I’m with Deb. This is a brand taking a position on a social discussion. What benefit is it to anyone whether Testra are for or against. Get on with helping Aussies communicate. I know a lot of ppl love their phone but Telstra is a public bloody company. It’s views on this matter are driven by profit. Not people, not love.
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Has Telstra claimed that it opposed to gay marriage?
I do believe that a change of tack from pro, or even con, to no comment, is fair enough. Change is only change, it can only be change for the better, when it prove to be so.
I have no doubt that many people would agree that marriage equality is a good idea, and that it will surely be a change for the better, but pro change supporters have no right to lambast anyone for a no comment or a neutral stance on any issue which has not been decided.
Any issue will attract its supporters and its opposers, I see no harm in standing on a neutral point, it is, after all, the only place to stand , if you are undecided, and there ought to be no shame in that..
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Having worked there once, I can say that Telstra has an excellent track record in the area of diversity and programs of work In the GLBTI space. I would argue that has great value. I am not as frustrated by their step back into the politically correct shadow as I am by brands run by marketing interns who plonk a couple of gay stereotype stock pics into their ads posing to care in the name of banking a quick “pink” buck. It takes more than a logo on a full page ad for AME to convince me that you care….
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Telephony companies are for providing communications, not for participating in social debate.
Shame on Telstra for entering a social debate in the first place.
Not expecting this to be a popular thought on this forum, but really … phone companies, banks, car brands, etc entering social public debate.
Not their place I say.
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I disagree @tv viewer…brands want to become more than just the products and services they provide – they want to mean something to people – to stand for something. To create an emotional connection.
Brands choose to stand for social issues like gender equality, positive body image, education, sustainability, innovation, health, cancer research, etc.
The public is now expecting brands to be involved with social issues and holding them accountable is a good thing – brands can do a lot of good.
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Corporations are people remember? So Telstra is just another spineless person who alters their belief to suit vested interests.
Kind of like our Political system.
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@silly. I understand what brands want to be … But I think it is all rhetoric. At the end of the day, they are businesses that live or die by the dollar. This case with Telstra is an example where a business will abandon the rhetoric of its brand to chase the dollar. I don’t it is selling out. I think it is going back to its core business and certainly doing the right thing by its shareholders (of which I am not one).
I’d like to see what the CEOs of all of the businesses who appear in the full page ad in the Oz would do if their position on a social issue resulted in a drop in revenue and profits. My issue is not with equality, it’s with businesses entering social debate and trying to get us to believe they actually care about anything more than their bottom line.
@hairy Pegasus. I think we are kidding ourselves if we think a business is a person and corporations are people. Rupert Murdoch would love for us all to see his Fox empire as a person … And would laugh at us while counting his profits.
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@TV Viewer totally agree. Bloody stupid bandwagon riding at its most transparently awful worst.. do you hear me ANZ
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@ Dan Ilic. I would be keen for your response to my post at 12.58am on 17 April about brands being businesses and not social advocated. Not to start a fight, just keen to hear your comment on those thoughts in view of your article.
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