Major UK supermarkets stand against racism
Channel 4 and the UK supermarket sector stood together against racism in an unprecedented show of unity across two entire prime time advert breaks on Friday 27th November 2020.
Sainsbury’s recently launched the first in a collection of nostalgic Christmas adverts, which tells how a father and daughter’s excitement for Christmas gets them talking about Dad’s gravy and his ‘famous’ gravy song. It features a black family, which some people reacted to by posting offensive and racist comments on social media. It is not the first supermarket ad campaign to receive hateful abuse on social media.
The exclusive ad break takeovers mark the first time the supermarkets have come together in this way and aired at approx. 8.15pm during Bake Off: An Extra Slice and at 10.15pm during The Last Leg, both featuring the 60-second version of Sainsbury’s’ ‘gravy song’ advert.
Ads from Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, M&S, Tesco and Waitrose & Partners were split across the two breaks, airing one after the other – something the supermarkets would usually actively avoid. The activity carried the hashtag #StandAgainstRacism.
The bespoke Channel 4 introductions explained to viewers that “Channel 4 stands up against racism. After the reaction to this year’s Sainsbury’s Christmas commercial, retailers have put their usual festive rivalries aside across two ad-breaks tonight to stand side by side with us too.”
Verica Djurdjevic, Chief Revenue Officer, Channel 4 said:
“As an anti-racist organisation we are incredibly proud to stand together with Sainsbury’s and our retail partners against racism, using our national platform to call out the unacceptable reaction to Sainsbury’s Christmas advert.”
So, what should leaders in other sectors learn from how the UK supermarket industry has come together in this way?
The Institute of Leadership & Management’s Head of Research, Policy and Standards Kate Cooper says:
“The supermarkets’ stand has obviously been inspired by this year’s Black Lives Matter activism, which encouraged organisations to look critically at their own hiring practices and levels of representation. As the Institute reported in the summer, certain major brands were called out for being under-representative, even though they had aligned themselves with Black Lives Matter in their marketing campaigns. So, we saw a real spike of awareness around the relationship between marketing and representation.”
She notes:
“What has happened with the UK supermarkets is that because the Sainsbury’s ad received a racist backlash from a small, but vocal, minority of customers, the desire to take a stand against racism transcended marketing strategies. By flexing their approach, these retailers are saying to the majority of UK supermarket customers, ‘We hear your disappointment over these social media comments – and we won’t stand for racism either.’”
Cooper points out:
“The crucial thing to remember here is that thanks to initiatives such as loyalty-card schemes, supermarkets know their customers inside out. They have great data, and are highly savvy when it comes to their social media management. So, they are uniquely placed to communicate messages that they know will resonate with the broad base of UK shoppers. Other leaders in other industries can look at how this collaboration – this working together – can deliver on a higher purpose. In the immediate term, that would seem to be more important than profitability. But in the longer term, these statements about doing good and being honourable are going to have positive brand effects.
“That’s how it should be. Organisations should benefit from doing good, and we should not always look cynically at that logic. For now, though, the supermarkets have determined that taking a stand is the most important thing. Yes, it may yield commercial gains in the future. But at present, it genuinely doesn’t look like that’s their motivation.”
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