A Lifecycle Perspective of Brand Activism: Emergence, Evolution and Renewal

Over the past decade, brand activism has risen to prominence, catalysed by Nike’s ‘Dream Crazy’ campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, which was a watershed moment in brands’ engagement with sociopolitical issues. As the practice moved from fringe to mainstream in the marketplace, its meaning and capacity to function as an authentic point-of-difference and driver of transformation have been debated at length. Brand activism research has developed robustly, including Daniel Korschun’s influential scholarship and editorial leadership, which foregrounded marketing’s role in political engagement. Key themes include definitional foundations, authenticity, consumer factors (e.g., political identity), and firm factors (e.g., financial performance). This body of work has become substantive enough to warrant significant consolidation and mapping studies. What is missing, however, is a processual perspective that would provide theorisation of how the field has grown, diffused and matured, and at times, lost force. Accordingly, we advance a lifecycle perspective of brand activism, mapping scholarship across several stages: emergence; contestation; normalisation; and backlash. Post-backlash, we conceive three possible pathways forward for the field: plateau, decline and renewal. We conclude by outlining a future research agenda, envisioning a hopeful and resilient renewal of brand activism.