From selfies to Tweets, and from Instagram to celebrity worship, it’s certainly a unique era: one in which it seems the visible ‘marketing’ of values—through filters, faux outrage, and charity wrist bands—is as important as the values themselves. Or as Jay Ogilvy, a columnist at global intelligence firm Stratfor, writes: “the virtualization of ‘reality’ takes precedence over the reality of virtue.”
It means the media and politicians zhoosh-up their own ‘production’ processes by focusing on millennial media platforms, and by pandering to ’Hollywood’ culture—in which a celebrity’s political stance becomes tomorrow’s headline. And it’s catalyzed the click-bait, infotainment, and populist world we now find ourselves in.
And so, there’s a very real danger that the production age also allows us to do less, under the guise and perception of doing enough.
When terrorists strike, we drape our Facebook profile pictures with a flag to show unity. When the image of a drowned refugee child emerges, we share it to convey our outrage. And when a TV-cum-business personality emerges as a frontrunner for the highest political post in the world, we retweet #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain to show our disapproval. But what actually changes?
Our online worlds allow us to visibly tether to values shared by our social circles. And it accustoms us into thinking platitudes can replace real policy— that ‘powerful’ celebrity speech littered with calls for ‘peace’ ‘diversity’ and ‘equality.’ With everything geared to production mode, our realities are high on emotion, and low on action.
And displaying sensitivity to feelings—on the left or the right—is greater currency in today’s society than actually acting to assuage it. In fact, a recent paper entitled ‘Microaggressions and Moral cultures’ hypothesizes how Western societies have transitioned from a culture centered on honor, through to dignity, and now to victimhood, in which portraying oneself as a ‘victim’ or visibly defending ‘victims’ draws the greatest social kudos.
The ‘slacktivist’ ethos it all promotes is harmful. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that those who support a cause publicly, such as via Facebook or Twitter, are less likely to engage meaningfully through costly and deeper future contributions, relative to private supporters. While UNICEF ran a 2013 campaign with the tagline “Likes don’t save children’s lives,” targeting those who want to associate with their causes, without donating.
When TV, media, and celebrities adopt the culture too, inaction and perceived altruism—through its vindicating ‘virality’—can become entrenched. The, ultimately, unsuccessful 2014 Twitter-led #BringBackOurGirls campaign seeking the rescue of over 200 Nigerian school girls kidnapped by Islamic State affiliate Boko Haram was iconically endorsed by Michelle Obama and later David Cameron.
While popular satirical political shows in the U.S. including The Daily Show, hosted by Trevor Noah, and Last Week Tonight, led by John Oliver—who launched #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain—took the fight to Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign with humour. And now a plethora of celebrities, including Meryl Streep, have used award show platforms to criticize Trump since his election.
There is little doubt that viral Tweets, comedy, and speeches can help to raise awareness through their infectiousness. The question is whether powerful people who wield so much influence and prominence in today’s society should be more careful not to been seen reducing serious and complex matters to only a temporary feel-good share, hashtag, one-liner, or scathing rebuke—and rather be seen to be spreading ideas for long-lasting action, solutions, and policy prescriptions instead.
But there’s nothing inherently wrong about empathy or displaying sentimentality, particularly if it helps raise awareness, and money as a side effect. What matters is if it becomes a smokescreen for actual action. And so, we must be driven by the need to create a culture of effective activism—away from those that generate only an aesthetic of change, and which placate our need to actually act. Short-term outrage, and compassion, isn’t enough.
After all, all marketing needs to have some product of substance.