Should brands use their platform to speak out about politics and take a stand, or should they stay far away and keep the two separated?

Whether brands should post about politics has always been a hotly debated topic. But with a global pandemic and historical Black Lives Matter movement changing the world, it seems brands are being forced into making a stand or being ostracised for staying silent.

It’s a complex topic. To help shine a light on the subject, Adzooma has investigated what people think about brands posting about politics online and how this affected their opinion of them. In addition, it also questioned whether s saw the statements as genuine, or saw through them as thinly-veiled attempts to promote their own products.

Overall, the research found that customers are 63% of people are more likely to buy from a brand that speaks out about politics – but only if they agree with the statement. If a brand posts about something that goes against customers’ values, 67.5% of people will be unlikely to buy from that brand again.

In addition, most customers view political statements as ingenuine. 43.5% of customers stated that they saw political statements as a way to jump on the bandwagon and 23% of people saw them as purely promotional. Only 7.8% of people saw statements as well-thought-out and relevant, showing a real distrust in brand political statements.

You can see the full data here.