This article from the August 2019 IPA Review is by Dr Bella d’Abrera, Director of the IPA’s Foundations of Western Civilisation program:

Earlier this year, the marketing team at Gillette succeeded in alienating its customers in the short space of 1 minute and 48 seconds with its now infamous advertisement titled We Believe: The Best Men Can Be. The ad, which capitalised on the #metoo movement, shamelessly propagated the myth of toxic masculinity by portraying all men as being born fundamentally bad. It commenced with a distressed-looking man as a narrator talking about things like bullying, sexual harassment and toxic masculinity, and then followed it up by depicting these behaviours in a variety of highly implausible and downright insulting scenarios.

Unsurprisingly, there was an enormous backlash from legions of loyal customers (men) who promptly boycotted Gillette’s products, posting images of razors in the bin. While data suggests Gillette’s grooming products have indeed taken a hit, there’s also no doubt the brand itself has been diminished. In the UK, YouGov BrandIndex tracks public perceptions of brands by using a balance of the positive and negative things people have heard. They reported Gillette’s score fell from 5.8 points to -3.4 in a matter of weeks.

In 2016, Target tried to impose a radical new bathroom policy on its customers in the USA and was boycotted by 1.4 million shoppers, which resulted in lower revenues in 2016 and reduced the share price. Meanwhile in Melbourne, the Handsome Her café charged men an extra 18 per cent to account for the so- called ‘Gender pay gap’, as well as making sure to seat women first. This café recently closed down after two years in operation. It turns out that telling 50 per cent of your clientele that you don’t like them is not a good business model after all.

While these examples might well differ in scale, each is an example of ‘woke capitalism’ at work. For the uninitiated, ‘woke’ is defined as a political term of African American origin that refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. Capitalism, of course, requires no such definition. Together they are employed to refer to companies which adopt the social justice causes of the day by incorporating them into their corporate culture and branding, then foist them onto employees and unsuspecting customers alike.