Brand Activism

Scalvini makes an important intervention in our understanding of the relationship between consumers and brands. Highlighting the complex interactions between brands, their attachments to social causes, and the expectations and responses of their consumers, he creates a crucial case for recognising brands as political actors in contemporary society. At the same time, he emphasises the vital role that ethics must then play in their actions, to avoid the selective attention and prioritisation of causes and groups that perpetuates existing hierarchies. Consumers play a vital role in holding brands to account, and the book also reminds us that in an age of empowered consumers, the market is not only a place of exchange, but also a space where demands for brand accountability can no longer be ignored. - Lee Edwards, Professor, Strategic Communication and Public Engagement, Londo School of Economics In the upside-down world of fake news and the appropriation of discourses of empowerment by those who oppress, it is more crucial than ever that critical media scholars pause to consider the power that branding has or claims to have. Can advertising be a politically moral practice, or incite ethical responses to injustice? This book offers a bold analysis of these questions, thereby significantly advancing theories of both branding and media ethics. - Mehita Iqani, Author of African Luxury Branding and Garbage in Popular Culture