Marketing As Resistance
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From ICE raids to genocide in Gaza against Palestinians to the travesty of the American healthcare system that’s only going to get worse with the “Big Beautiful Bill” to the utter failure of Diddy’s jury to convict him on charges he couldn’t be more obviously guilty of to cutting DEI programs to the United States slipping deeper and deeper into fascism… It has been a lot.
The injustice of it all is crushing. The enormity of what we’re facing has short-circuited the nervous systems of more than a few entrepreneurs, artists, and healers whose calling is to make the world a more just and beautiful place.
In the face of so much injustice, cruelty and terror- how are we supposed to market right now? How are we supposed to tap into an “abundance frequency” and/or “dominate the pipeline”? You’re telling me the best goal I can have right now is a $20K month or 100 new clients?
In my communities, I’m hearing more and more signs of burnout. More entrepreneurs ghosting on their marketing. More entrepreneurs wondering what’s even the point of anything.
To be honest, I’ve been one of them. I lost my voice for a while there.
“What can I do? I’m so small. I have no power to change anything,” I thought as I went through the motions of the day.
“I don’t know how to teach you right now, because I don’t have answers. I don’t want to sell to you because you’ve got more important things on your mind like survival,” I thought as I went yet another week without marketing my business.
I struggled. I got sick. I felt despair.
Thank gawd for The Squad 🎉 and my cheer clients.
I may have lost my hope for a minute but they hadn’t.
They were signing record deals and booking tours. They were getting licensed in male-dominated industries and immediately using their specialization to help migrants. They were celebrating Juneteenth and volunteering their services to marginalized groups. They were being loud and powerful and creating movements. They were giving hope and finding their people. They were setting boundaries and getting paid.
And I remembered.
Oh yeah.
We’re the light for each other.
Each time we show up boldly, loudly, radically in service to our communities, we normalize the values we uphold.
Each time we win and share it, our people have an excuse to celebrate too.
There is so much joy in the wins of people you’ve been rooting for.
There is a magic to simply showing up.
You may have one voice, but that one voice can galvanize, inspire, and launch movements.
On the Fourth of July, Independence Day, my friends and I joined a peaceful protest through the streets of Downtown Long Beach. I was just one person walking. Too tired from illness recovery and struggle to even bring a sign. But I wasn’t alone. I had one voice joined by many and we were loud. When we chanted “Stand up fight back! ICE out of Long Beach!” marching to the rhythm of a local musician’s “Fuck the Empire” bop, we were handed water and soda and snacks by supportive local businesses and I felt the little embers of my hope, faith, and vision - long in danger of going extinct - grow in strength. I wasn’t as powerless as I thought, and neither are you.
Your marketing for your small business, a business that does things ethically, that was born to make the world more just and beautiful, has the potential to launch and galvanize movements and enact great, needed, necessary change.
You can normalize empathy, inclusion, human rights, and justice through your marketing.
You can use your marketing to create the places, the support, and the community you’ve been longing for.
You can offer the people a way to vote with their dollars for the world they want to see.
I forgot for a moment, but now I remember what a gift it is to have the incredible freedom of speech that comes with being your own boss.
Marketing as Resistance Profitably Changes The World
Before you write me off as too Pollyanna woo woo, I want to share a few real-life marketing examples that have rewired our collective understanding of what’s normal, of what’s of value, of what’s “allowed” in marketing. Keep in mind, these are just a few examples among MANY!
Fenty Beauty Forced The Makeup Industry To Better Serve Diverse Consumers
Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty normalized offering a diverse range of foundation shades to meet the needs of consumers of color. You better believe brands scrambled to catch up after that!
Debuting in 2017 with an unprecedented 40 shades of foundation, Fenty Beauty was an instant success earning $100 million in sales in its first 40 days.
Other brands were forced to diversify their skin tone ranges in order to remain competitive- a phenomenon now referred to as “the Fenty Effect.” Elle reported in 2018 that the “Fenty 40” was the new industry standard, and that “10 shades of beige foundation won't cut it anymore.” But Fenty Beauty didn’t stop there- it now boasts 50 shades of foundation.
From jump, Fenty Beauty also celebrated diversity by featuring models of diverse ethnicities, genders, ages, and sexual orientations in its marketing.
It proved to be a winning strategy.
Forbes reported Fenty Beauty was “conservatively” valued at $2.8 billion in 2021, making it the highest valued celebrity beauty brand in the world.
Savage X Fenty Forever Changed The “Model Body”
Similarly, in the before times - that is before Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty exploded on the scene in 2018 - it was NOT normal to see diverse people, body types, ages, genders, dis/abilities, and sexual orientations modeling lingerie. But now it sure is!
The revolutionary Savage X Fenty Vol. 1 fashion show that dropped on Prime Video in 2019 made Victoria's Secret’s extremely narrow definition of beauty and sexiness on display in its once beloved fashion shows look offensively antiquated and out-of-touch. Exclusivity to whiteness, heteronormativity, and tall-and-skinny-ness was out and inclusivity was in- even in the world of lingerie marketing.
Rihanna and the cast of Savage X Fenty Vol. 2 Courtesy of Savage X Fenty
Victoria’s Secret, mired in “me too” controversy and growing critiques about the lack of representation and diversity in their marketing, canceled their fashion shows from 2019-2022 and returned in 2023 with what many considered a rip-off of Savage X Fenty’s shows.
But the public rewarded Savage X Fenty for walking the talk of inclusivity.
As Victoria’s Secret flailed, Savage X Fenty saw a 200% revenue growth in 2020 and reached a billion-dollar valuation in 2021.
Patagonia Put Trump On Blast & Sextupled Sales the Next Day
In late 2017, when President Trump signed proclamations to drastically reduce the size of two national monuments in Utah, outdoor gear company Patagonia responded by tweeting and replacing its homepage with the headline: “The President Stole Your Land” emblazoned in white font against a simple black screen.
“In an illegal move, the president just reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. This is the largest elimination of protected land in American history,” the message continued.
Patagonia went on to join tribal nations, environmental groups, and local groups in suing the president to block the action. [In 2021, President Biden signed executive orders to restore the previous boundaries of both national monuments, reversing Trump’s proclamation. However, the protection of the land continues to face legal challenges.]
No stranger to environmental activism, the company’s bold, progressive stance literally paid off yet again.
The day after the “The President Stole Your Land” blast, Patagonia had 6x the sales of a normal day. And GQ reported that according to data from Slice Intelligence, “sales were 7 percent stronger the week of the statement than they were the previous week—which included Cyber Monday.”
In 2022, when Patagonia was valued at around $3 billion, founder Yvon Chouinard transferred ownership of the company to a specially designated trust and non-profit organization that were created to ensure the company’s independence and ensure profits went to fighting climate change and to protect undeveloped land.
Costco watched foot traffic increase for months after upholding DEI while Target lost $12.4 billion in market value after rolling back its diversity initiatives.
This example is not so much marketing as it is walking the talk in public… that winds up serving as a powerful marketing campaign.
Upon returning to office for his second term in January 2025, one of President Trump’s first executive orders was to eliminate federal Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, fulfilling a pledge he’d made during his campaign.
Emboldened by this normalization of returning to racist & sexist workplace policies, companies like Meta, McDonald's, Walmart, Lowe’s, Harley Davidson, and Target announced plans to scale back or end some of their DEI programs.
Other companies publicly upheld their commitment to DEI. While JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon said JPMorgan's continued DEI efforts were "90% for-profit,” Costco took a moral stance.
At Costco’s board of directors’ unanimous urging, shareholders overwhelmingly voted to reject a proposal from conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) to report on the “risks” associated with their DEI programs. In a message to shareholders prior to the vote, the board stated: “Our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary. The report requested by this proposal would not provide meaningful additional information."
Consumers rewarded this stance with months of increased foot traffic. Costco reported a 7% increase in year-over-year sales through April.
All this is in stark contrast to Target, a Costco competitor that rolled back its DEI initiatives and saw a marked decrease in foot traffic, lost $12.4 billion in market value at the end of February, and was the subject of several boycotts, including a 40-day consumer boycott led by Rev. Jamal Bryant with more than 100,000 sign-ups.
Portland’s Favorite Ice Cream Parlor Gave Free Cones to ICE Protesters
I wanted to give a smaller-scale example of walking the talk actually serving as powerful marketing.
In my own personal life, Fifty-Licks became my - and all my friends’- all-time favorite Portland ice cream parlor not only for their delicious, unusual, and vegan-friendly offerings but because they brought an icecream truck with a “no fa$cists” sign to the ICE protests in 2018 to give free cones to the protesters.
Last year, they were voted the best ice cream in Portland in the Willamette Week poll.
Research indicates that inclusive advertising increases sales.
Marketing as Resistance is not just altruism. It’s also a solid business decision.
A 2024 global study of 392 brands across 58 countries by the Unstereotype Alliance, an initiative convened by UN Women, found that inclusive advertising had a positive impact on business profit, sales and brand value.
The study found that inclusive advertising resulted in:
5% higher shorter-term sales and 16% higher longer-term sales
62% higher likelihood of being a consumer’s first choice
15% higher customer loyalty
Brands are catching on. According to a 2025 HubSpot survey, 63% of marketers reported that their primary place of employment invested in inclusive marketing and 96% said inclusive marketing has a positive impact on business.
In other words, inclusion is profitable. Business leaders everywhere have the power to normalize inclusive values and practices via their marketing. We can profitably change the world for the better.
Marketing Your Legacy
Here’s another question. What footprint do you want to leave with the words you put out into the world?
It’s marketing today. It’s legacy later.
As I reflected on and researched this piece, I took a look back at what I’ve personally used my marketing to advocate and normalize. And, I have to say, I’m proud of my track record. And if I’m lucky enough to live long enough to become an old lady, I’ll be proud of it then too. I’ve done podcast episodes on going beyond rainbow capitalism to walk the talk of supporting LGBTQ+ consumers, taking fatphobia out of marketing, adjusting marketing & business “best practices” for those with chronic illness, opting out of hustle culture, and more.
I’m building a business and a life that I will be proud of. My descendants will be proud to claim the legacy of my actions, what I stood for, and how I used my voice. What a blessing.
I predict that history will remember MAGA the way it remembers Nazis today. The descendants of Trump voters will be ashamed of the evil actions of their bloodline and attempt to distance themselves. Just as “I was just following orders” didn’t hold up in Nuremberg, the actions of ICE and their masked, badge-less bounty hunters won’t when they’re on trial for human rights violations in the international courts of the future.
This is a moment in time. A terrifying one. A cruel one. But you still have your voice. And you definitely still have your love for your people, and your hope for the world.
Keep showing up. Use your marketing to get fed and pay your bills AND to create a better world.
All is not lost. Your voice is more powerful than you know. Use it to fuel your business as an agent for positive change.
Want to amplify it? I’d love to have you in The Squad 🎉, my radical marketing mastermind/support group for big-hearted, black sheep, rebel entrepreneurs making the world a better place through health, wellness, social justice, and the creative arts.
