There’s No Public Support for ‘Woke Capitalism’
Matthew Goodwin has written an interesting piece for the Telegraph in which he tries to get to the bottom of so-called ‘woke capitalism’. Here is an excerpt:
What is driving this so-called “woke capitalism” – companies adopting openly political beliefs, entering the culture wars, and encouraging if not forcing their workers and customers to follow suit? Is it driven by firms themselves? Do senior executives feel compelled to adopt such positions due to pressure from Government? Is it an attempt to curry favour with younger, more activist employees?
Regardless of the cause, ask ordinary people what they think about it and you will soon encounter a public that is deeply sceptical if not openly hostile to this growing moral righteousness. Consider the findings of my new research for Policy Exchange, which has just launched Britain’s first major project investigating the corporate culture wars, which I am proud to be leading. We polled a large and nationally representative sample of voters to probe their views on these issues. And what we found directly contradicts what some companies appear to believe the public wants.
Should companies be able to refuse to do business with people who hold political beliefs they disagree with? Only 20 per cent of people think they should. Should companies be able to force workers to declare their gender pronouns? Only 16 per cent think they should while nearly 60 per cent oppose such efforts to get people to align themselves with gender identity theory. Should companies such as Ben and Jerry’s publicly campaign against the Government’s immigration policy? Only one in three think they should. Or should firms be able to fire workers because they share controversial beliefs on social media, outside of working hours? Only 12 per cent of people think companies should be able to do this.
Consistently, in all these areas and more, most voters openly push back against the creeping tenets of progressive ideology. Indeed, when we asked voters whether they think employees should be discriminated against because of political beliefs they express at work, we found more than half the country think they should not while only 18 per cent express some support for this political discrimination. Remarkably, Conservative and Labour voters are united in their opposition to woke capitalism.
Clearly, woke capitalism is unpopular. So why do companies keep doing it? Goodwin’s poll also addresses that question:
But voters are not idiots. When we asked them why firms make political statements, only 10 per cent thought it was because “they genuinely believe in them” while more than four in 10 said it was either because they wanted free publicity or because they want to distract from bad behaviour. In short, it is not hard to see how wading into the culture wars narrows rather than widens one’s consumer base.
While there is no doubt plenty of cynicism involved, I tend to think many at these companies actually are woke zealots. Though of course it depends on the company, and I haven’t done any research, so I will defer to the poll.
Sadly the article does not tell us how to stop this trend. But still, worth reading in full.
Stop Press: You can read a longer piece by Matthew Goodwin about his polling on ‘woke capitalist’ on his Substack.
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I have spoken about this many times and I think several times on Daily Sceptic. But if such large numbers are really against this wokery of companies claiming they are not just all about making money but also of alleged social responsibility then I wonder why that is not reflected in the sales of these companies’ products. I certainly try as much as possible to avoid products whose manufactures push silly social justice messages, (like eg the Dove TV adverts(Unilever) that have black women staring at the viewer in utter contempt)..——-But I would like to see a survey of TV adverts to see how distorted the presence of black and minority people appear in them relative to the actual percentage of these people in society. Because as far as I can see their presence is disproportionate to a large extent. This is Woke Capitalism and it everywhere to be seen. I am assuming that people by and large are tending to ignore this sort of thing because they think it is only corporations trying to indulge in a spot of equality and what is the harm in that? Well if they were doing it off their own backs maybe it… Read more »
Hard to boycott everything that is tainted – you’d need to live on nuts and berries.
I think we just need to recapture the narrative and the institutions and discredit woke ideas.
Personally I am sick of seeing fat people, ugly people, brown people and women and homosexual and/or effeminate men over-represented in TV commercials. I have absolutely nothing against people in any of those categories, but I do despise those who are pushing this, who are almost certainly mainly white, middle class good looking and heterosexual.
They are not representing society as it is, they are promoting their own preferred version of it.
Correct, and the people who are not onboard with the wokery according to the survey can help by sending the message that we won’t buy their stuff.
“Hard to boycott everything that is tainted”——–Yes but what I said was that “I try as much as possible to avoid products whose manufacturers push silly social justice messages”. ——-Let’s see how their pompous self righteousness stands up when sales plummet. ——-But I would also like to hear how you think “we can recapture the narrative”.. ——How do you propose that gets done?
I tend to think if I tried to avoid transactions with organisations I disapprove of strongly, life would be extremely hard, because it’s pretty much all of them. I guess you can try to cherry pick the most egregious examples, and write to them to tell them why. If you have the energy to do that, I take my hat off to you, sir.
I think we’re doing all we can, each in our own way. Don’t vote Tory so that the party is destroyed and a truly conservative political force has space to emerge. It seems to be the left’s time to dominate. It will swing back again, but maybe not in my lifetime.
Well we can all just sit here and say “There is no point in worrying about stuff we cannot do anything about” ——I am sorry I do not subscribe to that meek point of view. You are correct that it would be impossible to avoid everything you disapprove of, but we also cannot just take everything that is chucked at us. You just recommended something yourself when you said “Don’t vote Tory”.——– So there are things we can do after all isn’t there?
Of course there are and I applaud all of those who take the trouble to do so. But I think one needs to conserve energy and choose battles where you can do the most good.
Do you pay the TV licence fee that sustains, supports and promotes the woke agenda? If not I salute you, but for those that do they really need to take a stance and refuse to pay or stop grumbling.
… because they want to distract from bad behaviour.
Yes – I’ve always found that organisations that most loudly trumpet their commitment to ‘values’ such as honesty, integrity, loyalty, inclusion etc are in fact the nastiest, most toxic, bullying organisations in reality…
BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street are the largest institutional shareholders in 90 per cent of of Fortune 500 companies. They set the agenda and manipulate the companies they fund. If a business doesn’t bend the knee to their demands, they lose investment. As long as Larry Fink – a WEF fanatic – controls BlackRock, he rules the Western world. I boycotted Gillette – whose razors I’d used since I was 14 – after they went woke, so they lost a customer of over 30 years’s standing. Plenty of 15-year-olds, doubtless, received their free shaving kit this year, so my boycott ultimately will be meaningless. Of course, as I recall, old man Gillette was one of the early crazies who wanted a world where every business merged into one giant corporation. I now use Wilkinson Sword, Gillette’s main rival, as I haven’t noticed any overt politicking from them. Unfortunately, unlike the USA, where an alternative economy is flourishing, the UK woke Establishment regulates things far more tightly. Woke, at its root, is about control. Woke is a hybrid of Neo-liberalism and Cultural Marxism. Woke corporations are primarily interested in the stability of ‘the Market’ and Cultural Marxism controls the behaviour and… Read more »
I’d be happier if Sky Brown rather than Greta Thunberg were to be praised as a positive role model.
‘What is driving this so-called “woke capitalism”
Too many middle managers, particularly in ‘Human Remains’, with far too little to do.
‘The devil makes work for idle hands’
It derives from, is driven by, far too big a public sector, with grotesquely inflated personnel departments.
The cure is more competition, so that ‘Go woke, go broke’ becomes the ‘new normal’.
Like many of you, I cancelled my PayPal account. But I wanted to cost them as much as possible for their attempt to subvert freedom.
I completed a Subject Access Request (it’s dead easy), forcing them to send me, in paper form, all the information they held on me.
It i no sufficient that these organisations be allowed to simply revert to business a susual after they’ve been called out. We must ensure there’s a penalty for doing so, otherwise they’ll all keep trying it.
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I look at the adverts. So many products advertised are clearly not (metaphorically) aimed at me. I am clearly not ‘relevant’. Indeed, do they think I do not notice that I am positively ‘dissed‘ (what any awful term)?
So be it. My money goes elsewhere, to those companies who make me aware their products are intended for me.
Gillette hasn’t seen a penny of my money since 2019. I wonder if their sales to women of pink razors at rip off prices have made up for their losses. I hope not.
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When Ben & Jerry’s were ‘the little guys‘, they fought long, hard, and loudly against the big corporate competitors who held an oligopoly and who were trying to crush them by fair means and foul. Good on them.
When Ben & Jerry’s became one of the oligopoly, but before they’d sold the company, they used exactly the same underhand tactics, and worse, against the other newcomers of their day. I hope their ice cream melts in hell.
Brew Dog are the same sort of hypocrites.
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i used to love ben and jerrys ice cream but then i found out about GMOS and then they even got rid of their organic ice cream so no more ben and jerrys
I have found that LIDL produces some very acceptable alternatives in their premium range
i will look thank you ! i tried making my own but i miss ben and jerrys!
My experience of advertising agencies tells me that they overrode any concerns their clients had by telling them that their focus groups supported the idea, and no marketing manager wants to explain to the boss why they didn’t accept the very expensive advice.
It is only some time after a campaign breaks that the result is seen in the bottom line, by which time the agency will have considered its position and will have new polling to show a shift in public perceptions.
I should add that advertising people are generally the epitome of the Guardian reading metropolitan elite.
“I should add that advertising people are generally the epitome of the Guardian reading metropolitan elite.”
Frustrated Social Justice Warriors, failed “artists”, desperate to make themselves feel important. Scum. I hope I never meet one.
I’ve worked for these so-called ‘creatives’. They are deeply unimpressive, mediocre people who look like they walked out of a student union latte bar. Don Draper they ain’t!!
I can imagine. Leaving aside the despicable foisting of the woke vision under the guise of advertising, the stuff they produce is in general pretty lame – you can watch much better stuff from content creators on YouTube.