Selling Social Good: Making Sense of Cause Marketing

Abstract

Abstract: A special keynote conversation on cause marketing with a practitioner in the field Andrew Essex, formerly CEO of Droga 5 and noted media scholar Sarah Banet-Weiser. The conversation took place on December 5, 2022 as part of the 2x2 Keynote Series: New Edges in Media Studies in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at the Steinhardt School of New York University. Andrew Essex, author of The End of Advertising: Why It Had to Die and the Creative Resurrection to Come (Random House, 2017), begins by offering insight into historical and cultural forces that have pushed brands to align themselves with social justice causes as a way to build deeper ties with consumers. Sarah Banet-Weiser, author of Authentic ™ : The Politics and Ambivalence in a Brand Culture (NYU Press, 2012) and Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication and Professor of Communication at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism offers a different perspective on cause marketing. Her critique focuses on the "branding of intersectionality" and the ways in which corporations dilute powerful social movements when they promote progressive ideals like feminism and racial equality. She argues that the capitalist values of individualism and profit are in opposition to intersectional movements. After the keynote presentations, Essex and Banet-Weiser take part in a panel discussion moderated by Professor Marita Sturken and Clinical Adjunct Professor Jean Railla, both from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University Steinhardt.