#StopHateForProfit

The #StopHateForProfit campaign (read my Monday’s post “Facebook's Advertiser Revolt”) ensnared more companies – the latest include Adidas, Best Buy, Clorox, Conagra (the maker of Slim Jim, Duncan Hines and Pam), Denny’s, Edgewell Personal Care (brands include Playtex, Schick and Wet Ones), Ford, HP, Puma and Reebok.

But those who advocate it should know that this boycott against Facebook is unlikely to work. Sure, from a PR perspective, it is seen as a roaring success – but will it make Facebook purge racist, violent and verifiably false content to run rampant on their platform? I don’t believe so. 

After all, this isn't the first boycott of a social media company. In 2017, big brand after big brand announced they would stop advertising on YouTube – after ads were placed next to homophobic and racist videos. 

That particular boycott is now almost totally forgotten. YouTube tweaked their ad policies, and three years on YouTube's parent company Google are doing just fine. 

And there are more compelling reasons to believe this boycott won't hurt Facebook as much as we would like to think. 

First, most companies have only committed to a one-month proscription in July.

Secondly, much of Facebook's advertising revenue actually comes from thousands upon thousands of small- to medium-sized businesses. 

Although the boycotting advertisers include some big-name brands, they aren’t necessarily the biggest spenders on the social networking site in the US. For instance, none of these brands were in the top 100 spenders on Facebook in the said country so far this year, according to marketing analytics company Pathmatics. 

CNN had also reported that the highest-spending 100 brands only accounted for $4.2 billion in Facebook advertising last year – or about 6% of the social platform's ad revenue. 

The vast majority of the ‘other’ companies have not signed up – or rather, they are unlikely to sign up. 

That's because these businesses "can't afford not to advertise". They are priced out of advertising on TV and other ‘traditional’ mass media – and so, more affordable and more focussed ads on platforms like Facebook are deemed indispensable. 

Anyway, Facebook executives including Carolyn Everson, vice president of global business solutions, and Neil Potts, public policy director, held at least two meetings with advertisers on Tuesday, the eve of the planned one-month boycott, three sources who participated in the calls told Reuters. 

But they offered no new details on how they would tackle hate speech, the sources said – and so, their last-ditch attempt to derail the boycott failed. Nothing's new because Facebook are not willing to budge to meet #StopHateForProfit demands! 

The harsh reality is all of this is in the hands of Mark Zuckerberg (left) and he doesn’t care. Except making publicized cosmetic changes here and there just to demonstrate he listens – he is unlikely to do more to stop hate content on Facebook. 

As with the #GeorgeFloyd protests, this boycott will, over time, lose momentum. We can then expect a momentary lull and soon after, it will be forgotten. Zuckerberg knows it.

Detox Fashion

Credit: Trendstop

It’s time to detox! 

Let's commit to Greenpeace's "Detox My Fashon" campaign.

Around the world, an expanding movement of people are using their creativity, design skills and purchasing power to demand fashion without pollution. 

United by a shared belief that the clothes we wear should carry a story we can be proud of – activists, bloggers, fashionistas, designers, scientists and models have been pushing, persuading and proselytizing many big brands to commit to toxic-free fashion.

Since 2011, the environmental organization have been relentlessly shining a spotlight on the use of hazardous chemicals within the clothing industry. 

In fact, Greenpeace Germany have now published an update of the results in the form of a paper dubbed “Destination Zero: Seven years of Detoxing the clothing industry”. 

According to this report, a total of 80 major fashion brands have made progress in their pledge to remove hazardous chemicals from their production lines by the year 2020. 

They singled out fast-fashion companies such as Inditex (which owns the high street chain Zara), H&M, Benetton and Fast Retailing (which owns Uniqlo) as leading the way in the mission to reduce the use of chemicals that pollute the planet. 

But while these 80 companies that include major brands such as Adidas, Nike, Mango and Puma – they only make up 15 percent of the fashion industry as a whole, and Burberry and Valentino are the only two fashion labels from the luxury sector to have signed up to the pledge. 

Kirsten Brodde, Greenpeace Germany project lead of the Detox-my-Fashion campaign admits: “While we are extremely happy to see the progress of Detox companies towards cleaning up their supply chains, 85 percent of the textile industry is still not doing enough to eliminate hazardous chemicals and improve factory working conditions”. 

Still, we do need to recognize that there are already multiple initiatives put in place to clean up the fashion industry’s image and environmental impact have come to fruition over the past few years. 

Commendable efforts by PVH Group (which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) to reduce the waste generated by their brands, as well as a water economy programme launched by Gap Inc and recycled fashion collections launched by labels ranging from H&M to The North Face all make a difference. 

Sure, we still have a long way to go – but the successes achieved so far prove that when we work together, big businesses and big brands are compelled to stand up and deliver. For a better world. 

I support Detox Fashion! What about you?

Sneakers that Marry Fashion with Sports

A model presents a creation from the Dolce & Gabbana Autumn/Winter 2018 women collection during Milan Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, February 25, 2018

Luxury fashion and sports are coming together. And it looks as if they have become inseparable. 

Strange bedfellows alright but it is the in-thing now. And yielding big profits for those involved in the business. Already, both luxury groups and sports companies are looking to cash in on a booming market. 

Premium sneakers can start at around $400 but can easily go up as high as $3,000 for a pair of Christian Louboutin’s leather, crystal-embellished sneakers. 

And limited editions can even sell for well over $10,000, including the Chanel X Pharrell Hu Race Trail or Nike’s Air Jordan 3 Retro DJ Khaled Grateful. 

High-end brands such as Gucci, Prada and Balenciaga are increasingly looking to sneakers for growth, putting them in direct competition with sportswear giants like Nike, Puma and Adidas – and creating ever-more striking and swank designs. 

A Reuters report put global sales of sneakers – or trainers – to have expanded by 10 percent to 3.5 billion euros in 2017. 

For sure, sneakers are a big driver of the luxury shoe business – in fact, luxury sneakers represent the fashion industry’s fastest-growing segment. 

Bruce Pas, Men’s Fashion Director at US department store Neiman Marcus – a leading purveyor of the world's most unique luxury goods – trumpets: “It’s not really even a trend anymore – it’s become a category”. 

The rise of luxury sneakers is part of the growing influence of casual and streetwear in high-end fashion, where it is now acceptable to team sneakers with a tailored suit. 

Upmarket brands are tapping into street style to refresh their looks and young buyers are driving the shift. “Millennials” – born between the early 1980s and mid-90s – already represent a third of the luxury market, according to consultancy Bain & Co. 

It has been noted that even with intensifying competition, profits will remain very healthy. 

“There is (a) large space for prices moving up”, said Erwan Rambourg from HSBC. It seems that the ‘luxurization’ of sneakers can only impact margins positively. 

Designer footwear or luxury sneakers or couture sneakers or whatever we may wish to call them – they are a fast-growing market segment. 

Even for sportswear companies, like Adidas, fashion collaborations are not unusual. 

In fact, Adidas recognize that it is a way of expanding their company’s creative ecosystem and keeping consumers engaged and excited by the Adidas brand in a fast-moving market. “These days the pace has become so fast. People go to verticals, like H&M and Zara, and expect new products every month. Even with high fashion labels, it’s the cruise collection and pre-collections; every three months you get something new”, said Dirk Schönberger, creative director of Adidas’ sport style division. 

“We are a very commercial brand, so, of course, we have to deliver – at a minimum every week – something that excites the consumer. The verticals and the [speed of the] Internet have changed the way we do things”, he added. 

When a market opportunity presents itself, you can be sure marketing-driven companies will be in the thick of the action. It’s business, after all!