Social Justice: Toms Shoes – Not the Story You Might Expect
Last week I wrote about the remarkable mission and rise of Warby Parker, and the post received a tremendous response. People who didn’t know about WP were fascinated to learn that a) their product was affordable and stylish, and b) that the company has given away 500,000 pairs of glasses to the needy in 3 […]
Social Justice: Warby Parker, Clever Marketing, and the Power of Doing Good
Like the rest of my generation, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about living and working in a meaningful way. Much is written about Gen X and the ‘different kind of mid life’ experience we are having. The baby boomers transformed what it means to age; our generation grew up in their shadow and began […]
Social Justice: The Hershey Company’s Social Foundation
The Social Justice series has been highlighting the power of social media and it’s impact on brands and societal issues over the past several months. Today we decided to pivot slightly and focus on the social good brands and companies are carrying out, sometimes quietly, in the course of doing business. This week I’m putting […]
Social Justice: Cyber Bullying and the Suicide of Rebecca Ann Sedwick
Sadly, the story of Rebecca Ann Sedwick is reminiscent of other stories of teen cyberbullying; police are currently investigating what role it may have played in her death. Last Monday, 12 year old Rebecca jumped to her death from the tower of an abandoned business near her home in Lakeland, Florida. She’d struggled for months […]
Social Justice: Does the Kenneth Cole Tweet Really Matter?
It has become commonplace for marketers to examine cases of Social Media PR crises that are created by a company through its social media activity. Kenneth Cole is no stranger to being the subject of countless “What NOT to do” posts and stories. This Thursday he was back at it when he sent out the […]
Social Justice: The Positive Power of Social Media
Each week this post covers situations where social media has had a powerful impact on, or, created a hullabaloo about, a brand or societal issue. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that last week I hit a wall of negativity and railed, or I confess ranted, against the inanity that appears to dominate the […]
Social Justice: Have the Social Networks Failed Us, Or Have We Failed Them?
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about The Children’s Place PR bump in the road when the company was lambasted for its Best Subject T-shirts, reinforcing the stereotype that girls were not interested in math. In that post I highlighted the backlash by TCP’s supporters against the company buckling to their vocal social media detractors, […]
Social Justice: Sandberg, Lean In, and the Continuing Push Back
The LeanIn movement, founded by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, has garnered a tremendous amount of social media buzz since the early, pre-publication interviews; emotions and opinions ran strong from the onset. Countless blogs were written both for and against Sandberg’s philosophy as soon as the book hit the market. With the help of all of […]
Social Justice: A Backlash to a Social Media Backlash
We have been writing this Social Justice series long enough to witness a wide variety in the types of social media outrage stories that flare up weekly. Very often, the brand that is the target of the social mob’s anger just needs to wait out the storm, be careful not to fan the flames, and […]
Social Justice: When an Organization Can’t Recover
In early 2012, when The Susan G. Komen Foundation withdrew funding for breast cancer screening from Planned Parenthood, it caused a tidal wave of anger and sadness on Social Media. If you’re even a moderate user of social networks, you’ll be familiar with the story: The Susan G Komen Foundation announced that they’d be withdrawing […]