Cancel Culture as a Form of Negative Publicity

Publicity stunts or acts on social media by company or person tend to have a target audience. But what happens when that stunt reaches more people than expected and indirectly offends them? Or when people notice something wrong with it? It immediately gets reported, taken down, and gets canceled. Even if a statement or act was not perceived correctly or caused a misunderstanding, it would be hard to explain online. Getting canceled is one thing, but what comes after is similarly harmful to the party that gets canceled. It is dangerous not just because of the consequences but also because of how fast it produces results.

Cancel culture is a term generally referring to the act to call-out an internet celebrity, social issue, politics, or any person who made a statement, action, or anything not accepted by society [1]. Cancel culture was most evident during the pandemic when everyone was shut off from the physical world, making the digital world the only source of entertainment and communication [2]. With so much time and freedom online, it is common to see toxic remarks and arguments. Thus, a lot of companies are negatively perceived and publicized. Some have campaigns resulting in negative publicity. Cancel culture and Publicity achieves an underlying effect and go hand in hand as both increase the public awareness towards a particular company, person, or act although both produce negative results. Cancel culture is detrimental to creativity and innovation of companies. Affecting how the brand interacts and incorporates marketing strategies with caution.

Cancel culture can happen to anyone without even knowing what went wrong. Instantly receiving hate, vulgar comments, and going to extremes such as stalking, fallacious remarks, and invading personal space. The freedom online further escalates this public shaming into canceling and encourages more ‘righteous’ minded individuals to join in on the “cancel” campaigns. Companies have to be aware of the current trends and whatnot in order to implement one successful campaign.

“Owning and managing a brand in the age of social media is a chaotic and fast-paced responsibility.”, said Jessica Vittorio, an Attorney at a Dallas-based law firm [2]. Technology sparked innovation and more so created opportunities for businesses to expand their consumer base and greatly affected how brands and large companies take marketing strategies and decisions to the next level. Along with the growing social media base, the risk of offending or making mistakes online grows higher inadvertently, cautioning businesses and online personalities. With how fast information circulates around the internet. A single statement can produce a domino-like effect online. This type of event is what companies like to avoid most as it tarnishes their reputation. It limits the creativity of companies to be able to produce campaigns and advertisements which would not offend anyone in particular. Not only that, but companies have to choose the right people to portray and endorse their brand due to differing political views or bad reputations. Getting an infamous person to endorse a brand would just spell out trouble.

A study by Porter Novelli [3] gathered data and concluded that 66 percent (%) of consumers and supporters of large companies in the US would not hesitate to cancel if the company does something wrong. Additionally, the study concludes that 73 percent (%) of consumers are less likely to cancel a company if the particular objective, mission, or vision of the company is purpose-driven. This lessens the likelihood if the marketing campaign is goodwill and has societal or economic benefit. However, this does not mean that every company is safe from cancel culture, in fact, no one is safe. Even those purpose-driven companies are just less likely to be canceled.

Celebrities and Influencers have been canceled on multiple occasions due to public statements and actions which became controversial. For example, Will Smith’s Slap on Chris Rock, or Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s trial on accusations of domestic violence, and Robin Padilla on Running for Senatorial Elections. These events all led to one or multiple parties being affected—receiving hate, criticism and getting canceled online. In milder cases, consequences of these would just be receiving hate online. In the case that it is a severe offense like Will Smith’s slap on Chris Rock, being banned from the awards show and losing his own contract and the postponement of his movies is a lethal blow to his career [4]. With cancel culture, some of those that get canceled get turned into memes that people use around the media. The Amber Heard case for example, became subject to memes because of how she acted victim in court and exaggerating her stories [5].

Companies alike face heavy pressure due to having more factors involved. Wrong advertisements and marketing strategies lead to disastrous repercussions such as losing consumers and withdrawal of support or being fined for a sum of money. Moreover, they are held responsible by their consumers for their actions which lead to the cancellation of the company. Some large companies that have racial preferences or have a record of racism and sexism are sure to not escape the eyes of the public [6].

Negative publicity through cancel culture can decrease customer satisfaction. Some cases of which result in the withdrawal of customers toward the company or endorsers. One particular recent event that happened in the Philippines is the teaser of Shopee with their new ‘mystery endorser’. The teaser trailer circulated around the internet within a week and netizens were able to immediately guess who the new endorser was, not even a day after the release [7].

Just right after the change in administration in the government—-from Duterte to Marcos-Duterte administration—Shopee released its teaser right before the 10.10 sale. Later on, it was revealed that the new endorser is BongBong Marcos supporter, Toni Gonzaga-Soriano, confirming the guesses of the netizens [8].

Before this event, Toni Gonzaga-Soriano was already receiving a lot of hate for releasing a video-interview on BBM’s birthday in which their topic was the whitewashing of history—attempting to remove the crimes accused of the Marcos Family during their authoritarian rule. The video interview of Gonzaga became trending and garnered a lot of views but this only resulted in positive results for her. The fish bit the hook and Gonzaga was able to influence a lot of Filipinos. Those against the Marcoses were baited by the video which resulted in more people's views and income for Gonzaga. Although she constantly received criticism from this because prior to the video, Gonzaga already interviewed the oppositions consisting of Leni Robredo, Isko Moreno and Chel Diokno. It was also later on revealed that Marcos is the wedding godfather of Gonzaga [9]. Although she appeared to be of neutral political stand or apolitical, from the information revealed which she kept a secret, it is easy to deduce that she is a BBM Supporter.

Shopee received backlash because of this—-hate, withdrawal of support, and criticism online. This particular event caused a digital wildfire due to the fact that in the heat after the elections, Shopee decided to get a BBM Supporter as their endorser. In the business perspective, Shopee is utilizing Toni Gonzaga’s fame but instead received the opposite effect, losing consumers in the process. Uninstalling the application is one of the mild consequences as it does not add fuel to the fire, staying silent instead of canceling and calling out Shopee openly online [10]. But some still expressed their disappointment on social media platforms before deleting the application [8].

There became trending hashtags circulating around the media such as #BoycottShopee or #ByeShopee after the incident [11]. Toni Gonzaga even thanked her fans and bashers for being trending online and having multiple engagements [8].

Although Shopee received some backlash from their consumers, they pushed through with their 10.10 sale and it seems that everything is still normal aside from losing other consumers [7]. It did not change anything to Shopee’s strategic plans and more so just made the 10.10 sale more noticeable to the public since Gonzaga joining the e-commerce is for that purpose.

Toni Gonzaga goes a long way back of getting canceled. Due to her uncensored remarks and mindless comments during the elections, the media exploded especially after one of her controversial comments. As a firm BBM and UniTeam supporter, she said that the Malacanang Palace is the home of the Marcoses, a statement that proves to be false. Historians, journalists, and netizens alike said that the Malacanang is “the Palace of the People” and it will always be. [12]

Speaking of the elections, Robin Padilla is not an exception to all the hate and cancel from the political parties. Robin Padilla received criticism amidst his campaigns due to his ‘Grade 6’ like campaign style which encompassed ‘motherhood’ and his goal of feeding and being able to provide income to all Filipinos [13]. The typical statement of almost all uneducated and corrupt officials to hook in the mass. Supposedly, an actor with no background on politics and law whatsoever won with 26 million votes on his name. Adding fuel to the fire, Padilla is one of Duterte’s loyal supporters, who is a fascist and authoritarian mass murderer. Not only that, but Sarah Duterte said that Padilla is UniTeam’s ‘guest candidate’ indirectly stating that Padilla is part of their party [14]. Despite all this, Robin Padilla still won and seemed unfazed. This is a huge blow to the senatorial candidates with high education and contributions who deemed Padilla as someone beneath them.

Singer-Vlogger Donolyn Bartolome also became subject to cancel culture due to her recently trending “Kanto Style” or street style birthday party which offended a lot of Filipino families. Bartolome chose the theme for her birthday party with complimenting drinks and events such as karaoke, handaan, and props. Many netizens fumed with anger as they said “Poverty is not a theme, but instead a reality” which is in fact true. While many defended her actions, she herself stated that she was just going back to her “old” life and reminiscing about her ‘kanto’ days [12].

Who would have thought even Netflix would get canceled due to an advertisement? Yes, Netflix is always subject to criticism. Being a large and major player in the entertainment and streaming industry, Netflix releases shows and movies of different genres. There have been instances where Netflix is subject to criticism due to releasing sensitive content and Netflix says that viewers decide which one is appropriate for them. Even with this, Netflix stands to be one of the leading platforms for streaming and has since then gained a good reputation among the consumers for the service it offers. Although Netflix did get canceled for an advertisement they released on a film called “Cuties”[15]. This went trending because of the marketing implemented, sexualizing children and showing inappropriate movements [16].

Although companies get canceled for particular reasons, we do not know if it is intentional or not. Most of the time, companies and celebrities get canceled for posting something that is offensive unbeknownst to them. In the case of Shopee, it might have been intentional to capitalize Toni Gonzaga’s name and current fame to be able to be on the peak of their fame during their sale. Making use of infamy and negative publicity as a way to reach more people and let their name get known. Shopee may have used the fact that it was nearing their 10.10 sale so they took the risk of using someone in exchange for their consumer base. They risked losing consumers in exchange for Toni Gonzaga in the hopes that the consumers would not delete or leave them for the monthly sale.

In the case of Donnalyn Bartolome, it is justified since she just went back to her roots. Wanting to celebrate her birthday in the ‘kanto’ theme has nothing to do with looking down on the poor. The celebrant didn’t target anyone since she, herself, experienced that type of birthday during her early days.

In order to lessen the risk and consequences of being canceled, companies need to establish a good reputation and fame. By constantly engaging and showing the good nature of the company, the brand is then able to receive consumer loyalty and a well-respected reputation. This will make it easier for the company to ease the public if ever a time comes that they are canceled. Additionally, this will build consumer confidence and trust in the company so that both have an established rapport. This will make the company more believable and trustworthy to change and learn from their mistakes [6].

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