Antecedents and consequences of the “cancel culture” firestorm journey for brands: is there a possibility for forgiveness?

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to discuss the antecedents and consequences of cancel culture and assess if brands can gain the forgiveness of consumers and mitigate the damages of social media firestorms, that usually evolve from online abuse (e.g. cyberbullying, harassment, and offensive talk). A quasi-experiment study was conducted through an online survey simulating the cancellation journey. Results show that cancel culture is triggered by ideological incompatibilities such as religion, racism, animal rights, LGBTQIA+ and environmental issues. After the scenario that simulated an ideological incompatibility related to racism, 178 respondents rated high levels of brand hate, negative WOM, brand avoidance, brand boycott, brand retaliation, and intention to cancel the brand. However, an ‘apology’ by the brand leads to brand forgiveness, a decrease in the intention to cancel the brand and an increase in purchase intention.

KEYWORDS:

• Brand forgiveness
• brand hate
• cancel culture
• ideological incompatibilities
• apology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/24/victorias-secret-woke-lingerie-diversity.

2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanverdon/2021/03/18/time-for-mr-monopolys-get-woke-moment/.

3. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/business/mr-potato-head-gender-neutral.html.

4. https://fortune.com/2021/02/11/aunt-jemima-new-name-pearl-milling-company/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cláudia Costa

Cláudia Costa finished the master’s degree in Marketing and Strategy at the University of Minho, where she also did her Bachelor’s degree in Management. Cláudia’s major interest lays in the consumer-brand relationship, with a special focus on the current social media context. She is also eager to redefine the role of social media marketing when it comes to a brand’s image and its values in the current society (e.g., feminism, minority empowerment, and overall representation).

António Azevedo

António Azevedo is an Assistant Professor in the School of Economics and Management of University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. His primary research topics are tourism marketing, place marketing, destination branding, celebrity branding, advertising processing, and marketing strategy amongst others. He has published several articles in international academic journals and international conferences. He is also researcher of the Lab2PT Investigation Unit - Laboratory of Landscape, Heritage and Territory (University of Minho).