Polls say most Aussies will vote ‘No.’ So why aren’t companies saying it too?
With just over a month until the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, many prominent Australian companies including Qantas and Rio Tinto have publicly declared their support for the Yes case.
But despite the most recent RedBridge poll suggesting 61% of voters will vote no on October 14, there are few examples of businesses openly backing this campaign.
Instead, one marketing expert suggests brands are more likely to remain silent than to pick either side in the debate, perhaps due to the risk of alienating customers, or accusations of ‘woke-washing.’
Photo: Mitchell Luo on Unsplash
“Some are staying silent because they are becoming cautious about their company practices not necessarily supporting their stance,” Dr Amanda Spry, marketing lecturer at RMIT University, told Mumbrella.
“They don’t want to be woke-washing, which would be to take, say, a vote yes stance, and then their company practices or policies don’t truly support Indigenous Australians.
“Others might just be biding the time or just knowing that it [the Voice] is a really charged conversation right now, and want to be careful with their execution. They want to weigh up the pros and cons of getting involved.”
One of Dr Spry’s key research areas is the role of brands in driving societal transformation and the part they play in sociopolitical activism.
Historically, she said, brands stayed silent on socio-political issues because they know these discussions tend to be partisan and divisive, and brands do not want to alienate any customers.
However, considering the trend of brands taking a more active role in social issues in recent years, marked by campaigns such as Nike’s ‘Dream Crazy’ advert starring Colin Kaepernick, Dr Spry said she was a little surprised by how many brands have not taken a stance on the Voice so far.
“In theory, brand activism is just about taking a stance on an issue. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the progressive stance,” she said.
“But I think for brands in the current climate, to take a stance that would maintain a deeply problematic status quo would absolutely not do any favour to their reputation.”
The conversations around corporate activism now are reminiscent of what Australia saw right before the marriage equality vote in 2017. But according to experts from the University of Melbourne, the difference is that “marriage equality, though contested, was a relatively ‘safe’ issue.”
“The public were largely in favour of it and Australia lagged behind the rest of the world in legalising it. It cut across traditional party lines, with some members of both Liberal and Labor Parties supporting or opposing it,” Professor Susan Ainsworth, Dr Andi Pekarek and Dr Peter Ghin wrote in a 2018 article.
“We may not see another cause with widespread public support like marriage.”
Dr Spry added that issues, including racism and oppression, have only gotten more hotly contested since then.
“I think we all learned something in the Black Lives Matter movement, which peaked in 2020. Because now there are obviously some similar undercurrents around systemic racism and oppression of certain groups [with the Voice].
“So if brands want to get involved, that authenticity, and taking that responsibility meaningfully is absolutely paramount.”
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Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
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I have loyally flown Qantas for 40 years and my company has spent millions on Qantas flights over 33 years exporting but my loyalty is waning. Firstly, they attempted to steal 400,000 Frequent Flyer points over Covid. Then they belted us with huge airfares for our service engineers and finally that wacker Alan Joyce smugly supported the Yes vote. This is a very private question and I don’t want that idiot or any other company ramming their political views down my thoat.
It is just so sad.
Gerard
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Little upside getting involved, considerable downside: Not worth it.
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Essayer nails it. It’s usually the ones who want to hijack important issues for some kind of brand outcome who rush out to make sure everyone knows how virtuous they are.
I don’t need to be told how to think by my supermarket.
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