Risks of Cultural Marketing in the Era of "Cancel Culture"

Abstract

The current research study is conducted to analyse how businesses partake in using culture in their marketing strategy, whilst risking the threat of the social media movement known as “cancel culture”. Conducted through descriptive analysis of qualitative secondary research methods, the data of different examples would help build analysis and comparison on the overall risks of cultural marketing and “cancel culture”. Comparisons of businesses such as Marvel, Riot, Pepsi, and Burger King show how to properly make use of culture to market a business and also how a business could make mistakes through using culture, which also eventually leads to facing the “cancel culture” movement. Concluding with the findings that the risk correlates with the appropriateness of how the culture is used in their marketing strategy, risks for businesses to avoid getting “cancelled” could be reduced when used with a great cultural understanding. Therefore, the risk of using culture and the risks from the threats of “cancel culture” depend on the cultural ignorance of the business and how they plan on using said culture.