If values only exist when convenient, they're marketing tactics, not principles. Companies genuinely committed to their beliefs, like Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's and Lush, double down under pressure rather than folding. They accept losing some customers to build fierce loyalty with those who share their values. Customers are watching. The brands succeeding long-term know who they are and defend it when tested. Trying to please everyone means pleasing no one. 2026 will separate genuine convictions from marketing theatre.
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Carl's Jr brought back the "burgers and bikinis" adverts for this year's Super Bowl. You know, the ones with scantily clad women draped over hamburgers that they ditched back in 2017 when everyone was supposedly committed to purpose-driven marketing.
Bud Light, still nursing wounds from the Dylan Mulvaney backlash, served up the most stereotypical "blokes drinking beer and barbecuing steaks in suburbia" advert they could muster.
All that is old, is new again! We're re-running the advertising of the late 1990s, but dumber and faster and now powered by AI.
Meanwhile, advertising bosses are quietly admitting that any campaigns featuring diversity, equity, or inclusion (DEI) themes are being blocked by nervous brand owners who don't want to upset the "anti-woke" constituency.
One senior advertising executive, speaking anonymously to the Financial Times, said: "We've had a lot of ideas that were pro-LGBTQ, or pro for the Black community, pulled back on because of what's happening with the Trump administration."
This is what's clear to me... These companies are revealing they never actually believed in their stated values in the first place. They were just using them for clout, and to appear onstage alongside Dove, and now they're either scared, or the mask has fallen off. It doesn't really matter which is which.
For years, we've been drowning in corporate messaging about inclusion, diversity, and standing up for what's right. Every brand had a purpose beyond profit. Every company was committed to making the world a better place.
But the very moment there's a bit of political pressure, a few angry tweets, the threat of a boycott, the former fringe crank conspiracy-theorist in some kind of political office those "core values" evaporate faster than Tesla share price after a Musk tweet.
I read this as "Our stated values are only useful to us when they directly grow our profit, and so we can never really commit to them"
Companies that genuinely believe in their values don't abandon them when it becomes politically inconvenient. They double down. Lush, Ben & Jerry's, Patagonia. They didn't bow out like cowards. They explain why those values matter to their business. They accept that some customers might disagree and find peace with that.
But that's not what we're seeing. As the Financial Times reports, more than four-fifths of chief marketing officers now say the operating environment is "riskier for brands." A similar number admit they're taking more time to "agree what they stand for and how they articulate positions and values externally."
The ones flip-flopping based on whoever's shouting loudest on X, the everything app this week? They're telling you everything you need to know about their character.
Ad agencies are reporting that LGBTQ+ and Black community-focused campaigns are being pulled back. Pride sponsors are mysteriously disappearing. Companies that used to change their logos to rainbow colours are suddenly finding other things to do in June.
IBM just announced they're moving to "viewpoint neutrality" in their advertising. PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson are apparently on the same path. Because nothing says "we stand for something" quite like standing for absolutely nothing at all.
Even dog treat company BarkBox got caught with their pants down when a leaked Slack message revealed they were pausing Pride advertising because of a percieved vibe-shift in the "current climate."
Corporate sponsors are vanishing from Pride events across the US and UK. As one Pride organiser told the Financial Times, in 2017 Pride "was turning brands away as they did not meet criteria" but "it's very different now."
If your values only exist when they're convenient, they're not values. They're a marketing tactic.
Real values get tested when times are tough. When there's pressure to abandon them. When doing the right thing might cost you money in the short term.
The companies pulling back from diversity initiatives whilst keeping their "commitment to inclusion" on their websites? Sorry folks, they were lying to you all along.
Here's what's happening to companies that are abandoning their stated values: they're discovering that their fake convictions have created real problems.
When employees stop believing in company messaging, they stop advocating for you. Your best marketing asset - genuine employee enthusiasm - vanishes overnight. Staff who once proudly shared company content on LinkedIn suddenly go quiet.
Customer trust evaporates faster than it was built. The same customers who chose you because of your stated commitments feel betrayed when you abandon them for convenience. They're actively warning others about your lack of integrity. A cursory Reddit search will make it super easy to find people lamenting that a brand "aren't who they once were" because they've made decisions to abandon values in search of short-term profit.
Media coverage shifts from positive to sceptical. Journalists who once featured your company as a values-driven leader start writing about your pivot as evidence of corporate hypocrisy. It's a far juicier story to tell, how the 'high-and-mighty values guys' are just actually realpolitik creeps.
Meanwhile, companies with consistent, authentic values are building deeper customer relationships precisely because they're predictable and they feel good. People know what to expect.
If you're running marketing, user experience, or leading a business, these corporate values collapses should make you examine your own foundations.
What do you actually stand for? Not what looks good in your brand guidelines, but what you'd defend when it costs you customers or revenue.
How do you make decisions when principles conflict with profits? Because that tension will happen, and your response reveals whether your values are real or performative. I've had the joyful experience of working with multiple brands who've been able to identify shady shortcuts to profit and have confidently said "We're not going to do that".
Are you building genuine relationships with customers who share your beliefs, or just following trends until they become inconvenient?
The companies rolling back their values commitments are teaching us something valuable: they're showing exactly how to lose customer trust in record time.
Consumers can smell fake values from miles away. You're all equal opportunities employers, you're all champions of diversity, you're all committed to reducing slavery in your supply chains, you're all making vague allusions to 'representation'. I'll believe it when you do something about it. Words are cheap.
The brands getting hammered aren't the ones with strong, consistent positions. They're the ones trying to be everything to everyone and ending up meaning nothing to anyone.
Look at Patagonia. They've been championing environmental activism for decades. When there's pressure to tone it down, they double down instead. Their customers trust them because they know exactly what they're getting.
Consider Ben & Jerry's. They've taken controversial political stances that have cost them customers, most recently pulling out of Occupied Palestinian Territories. But their authentic commitment to social justice has created fierce loyalty among customers who share those values.
Look at Lush. Their activism on Spy Cops and their various We Are campaigns have established a soap shop as being more radical and progressive than almost all political candidates you'll be able to vote for at your next election.
Compare that to companies flip-flopping based on the latest Twitter/Truthsocial outrage cycle.
The dirty secret of this whole values retreat is that it's based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how marketing actually works. You don't need everyone to love you. You need the right people to love you enough to choose you over competitors, pay premium prices, and recommend you to their mates.
If supporting LGBTQ+ rights alienates some customers but creates deeper loyalty with others, that's excellent business. If environmental activism costs you climate change deniers but attracts sustainability-conscious buyers, that's excellent business.
The worst position is the middle ground where you stand for nothing and nobody particularly cares whether you exist or not.
The business reality is becoming clear through concrete examples. Target has been boycotted by customers since February for scaling back DEI initiatives. Mastercard didn't renew their top-tier Pride sponsorship this year. Plymouth and Liverpool have both cancelled their Pride marches - the latter citing "significant financial and organisational challenges."
But perhaps the most revealing quote comes from a UK marketing executive who told the Financial Times: "There is a genuine fear of reprisal, based on not just opinion, but actually some real fear of legal ramifications at some point down the line."
These companies are telling you who they are by admitting they're too weak to stand by what they previously claimed were fundamental beliefs.
The ones changing course have maybe they've decided that maximising shareholder value is more important than social impact. But we can at least stop pretending that's anything other than what it is: a business decision to torch long-term brand consistency and prioritise short-term convenience.
Your customers are watching. They're noting which companies stick to their values when it's difficult and which ones abandon ship at the first sign of trouble.
If your answer to "how strong are your values?" is "it depends on the political climate," you might want to be honest about that on your website instead of all that purpose-driven bullshit.
The customers who matter will respect you more for it.
Companies with genuinely strong values will build deeper relationships with customers who share their authentic commitments. Whilst their competitors are busy contorting themselves based on some guys perception of the wind's direction, they'll be focused on what actually matters - serving the people who believe in what they're doing.
The brands that succeed long-term are the ones that know who they are and stick to it, even when it's uncomfortable. They understand that trying to please everyone means pleasing no one.
So I'll ask again: how strong are your values really?
Because 2025 and 2026 is going to separate the companies with genuine convictions from the ones who were just playing dress-up with other people's struggles.
And honestly? If you're rolling back on ethics you claimed to believe in because of a bit of political pressure, you're revealing you never actually believed in them at all. You were just using them for marketing points.
