Exploring the Shift: Brands Embrace Conservative Media Amid Cultural Polarization

This article is part of our Confessions series, in which we trade anonymity for candor to get an unvarnished look at the people, processes and problems inside the industry. More from the series �

For the past few years, big brands and their agency partners have largely shied away from advertising on conservative channels, citing brand safety fears in ads showing up next to politically charged content. The tides, however, may be turning.

In todays highly polarized cultural stratosphere, marketers are toeing the line with a both-sides approach to media spend and marketing messaging. For one diverse, inclusivity-driven comms agency, that line toeing has meant taking on a conservative, faith-based media client, and trying to better understand right-wing media to help clients adjust to the new hyper-partisan normal.

Its a wait and see lets dip a toe and see if we dont get messed up, an exec from the agency, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Lets see if we dont turn into another Target or another AB InBev, and if we dont, lets keep going.

In this conversation part of our Confessions series, where we trade anonymity for candor the executive talks about clients changing relationship with conservative media and what that means for agency-client work.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Im going to speak to it not as an agency that represents and does comms for agencies. Im going to speak to it as a PR agency now representing a type of client that normally we may not have. We have actually taken on a conservative, [faith-based] media company that reached to us to do some programming around one of their tentpole [events]. Usually, we would be like, Absolutely not. Thats not something that we would want to touch, especially as a multi-diverse agency. But we have decided that we want to take this one. We want to see what the other side is doing, we really want to see what the other side is saying. Were not going to know unless were [out from] behind the frontlines. 

I liken it to the fact that I have started reading right-wing media because I want to see whats out there, I want to see what theyre saying. I want to see what other brands are saying and what other brands are doing. I cant do that if Im just reading CNN and The Cut and New York Magazine. Were doing that and Im seeing some of our clients do that as well. Its less another set of eyes [on campaigns and messaging] and a little more open to seeing whats on the other side of the fence than we would have been before. 

Absolutely. Some of the big brands, streamers and platforms that are now involved. Im surprised theyre signing up. I wish I could tell you who they were, but they are brands that you know.

They want to still make money without ruffling any feathers and not leaving anybody out in the cold. Before, they were like, We dont want to touch that because nobodys touching that. Dont even go there. That flies in the face of brand safety. Brand suitability wasnt even a term at that point. They just didnt want to be associated with perceived hate speech, violence, pornography or illegal content. Now, because the pendulum has swung so far in the direction of Anything political, were not going to touch, people are realizing they cant do that anymore because the administration has really infiltrated every single part of culture. Before, culture could exist without politics.

Im not seeing a massive shift. Its project by project. It depends on the time, the place and the purpose. Its still a little bit of a wait-and-see approach.

I want to say across the board. Two clients in particular one focused on influencer marketing and one focused on B2B. Completely different audiences. On the consumer side, the aperture is widening a little bit. On the B2B side, the aperture is widening a bit, but its not across the board. Everyones taking calculated risks in a vacuum that it cant affect other parts of the business.

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