Why Voting With Their Wallets May Be an Idle Consumer Threat

Well-loved brands can weather values-based storms

More than 80% of consumers who participated in a brand safety survey said they would reduce or stop buying a product if it advertised alongside extreme or dangerous content, which the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) and Brand Safety Institute (BSI) said poses “significant financial risk to brands.”

There’s just one problem: Consumers don’t always follow through.

TAG CEO Mike Zaneis acknowledged some of the findings in its first consumer study were elementary—“You have to start somewhere”—and said the organization plans more quantitative analysis to understand actual purchasing behavior.

Whether it’s the incredibly short lifespan of online outrage or consumer blindspots for policies that don’t align with their values, if a brand is well-loved—and unmatched by its peers—in many cases, customers are perfectly happy to overlook uncomfortable truths.

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