While brands are becoming more and more vocal on social media when it comes to supporting social and political causes, there are still a few lines most companies aren’t willing to cross. With at least one notable exception in The Illuminati, the clothing brand with an activist bent.
The Illuminati caused a stir last Tuesday when it tweeted, “The Only Justice for Trayvon Martin is to take the Life of George Zimmerman. #EyeForanEye #ZimmermanTrial.” The Washington Times published a screengrab of the tweet, which appeared to have called for the death of the former neighborhood watch leader who was found not-guilty in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin on Saturday.
The tweet has since been deleted, and another, more restrained Illuminati tweet has since gone out: “We do not support any violence in reaction to the #ZimmermanVerdict however we do believe in #JusticeForTrayvon.”
Ever since Zimmerman was acquitted, the brand, which has more than a million followers on Twitter, has continued to tweet a stream of comments relating to the controversial case:
While more and more brands are standing up for previously off-limits topics like marriage equality (Ben & Jerry’s and Svedka) and peace between India and Pakistan (Coca Cola), a controversial legal case that involves racial issues and murder is something that most brands would avoid getting tangled up in.
But then a company that posts articles like “14 Conspiracy Theory Locations You Must Visit,” and sells t-shirts with slogans like “Fuck the police,” is hardly a typical brand.
Still, the Illuminati clearly has a grip on its particular audience: The tweet about Trayvon dying a martyr got 1,410 retweets and 492 favorites.
Image via Shutterstock
-
Skills shortages and legal uncertainty curtail marketers’ in-house ambitions for programmatic
IAB Europe survey reveals a significant in-housing slowdown with only 16% of marketers employing it as a model for programmatic trading.
-
This charging company wants to reach electric vehicle drivers with digital displays
A company that makes charging stations for electric vehicles, Volta, is aiming to attract current drivers to electric vehicles with its educational ad spots through its social media channels, website, and OOH network.
-
TikTok claims to clean up its feeds as it increases the removal of fake accounts, ads and pre-teen users
Tens of millions of fake or underage accounts, millions of ads and more than 100 million videos were removed in Q2 for violating TikTok’s policies.
-
SponsoredHow FAST channels are redefining primetime opportunities for advertisers
Sponsored by Vevo With the competition from content providers continuing to build, the traditional primetime TV slots are no longer guaranteeing the mass audiences they once did. Television viewership is evolving, and the primetime window of 8–11 p.m. is less broadly reflective of younger audiences’ content consumption habits. In 2022, attracting TV viewers is a […]
-
Member ExclusiveDigiday+ Research: Brands and agencies agree they are confident in Google, but differ on ad spend
Digiday surveyed 90 brand and agency professionals in the third quarter to find out how their marketing spend lines up with their confidence that Google drives success as a marketing channel.
-
Tech firm touts new way to generate first-party data for agencies, publishers without privacy-compliance issues
FullThrottle’s Audience Flume product has been in market for more than a year, but is just being formally rolled out. The company is still awaiting a formal patent.
