Ethics Baiting: The Problem with Skims, Temu, and the Rise of “Ethical Washing”
Recently, you might’ve seen some of the most famous nipples of our generation featured in an ad framed around the climate crisis.
Kim Kardashian has put her excessive resources into creating a bra with permanently hard nipples. In order to sell it, her new ad makes the laughably far-fetched leap from Earth’s warming temperatures (which *gasp* will ultimately soften our nipples) to the market’s need for such a bra. This marketing tactic is 1. dystopian, 2. out of touch, and 3. a poorly masked appeal to our anxieties and consumer ethics.
Marketing executives, like those in charge at SKIMS, have noticed that public sentiment—especially amongst younger generations—has shifted to favor ethics, inclusivity, and collective wellness. Brands like Victoria’s Secret, infamous for its exclusivity to thin, cis-gendered women, have rebranded to boast body positivityand women's empowerment (despite their predominantly female workforce earning less than a living wage). Perhaps scariest of all is the recently launched marketplace Temu and its user-generated content that uses ethical and progressive rhetoric to lure consumers.
How Does Temu Work?
Marketplaces like AliExpress, Temu, and Wish (among many others) operate as online platforms where various sellers from around the world can list and sell their products. Basically, they act as middlemen, connecting buyers and sellers. Temu, launched in July of last year, is the newest of these marketplaces, and also one of the fastest growing; it’s become one of the most downloaded apps in the last year.
Here’s how:
They offer free products to users who promote the app on their social media accounts and get friends and family to sign up.
Temu sells everything from electronics to cleaning supplies, offering suspiciously low prices and “dupes” for items that are typically more expensive.
User-generated content that leads with anti-capitalist and socialist memes, followed by Temu promotion—“Use my Temu code!”
They target younger audiences using the psychology of the trend cycle; having grown up in a consumer economy, our generation is primed to desire new, novel items—and Temu has them.
It should be noted that each of these platforms has a slew of reported issues behind them regarding quality control, unpredictable shipping times, potential discrepancies between product descriptions and reality, poor customer service experiences, security and privacy risks, and allegations of forced labor.
A New Wave of Marketing
Whether they’re targeting our everyday stressors or larger existential fears, such as those associated with the climate crisis, corporate goals remain the same: to capitalize on our anxieties.
Companies also understand that Gen Z shops differently from previous generations. We’re more cautious and critical of the advertisements we see. Take the boycotts of Starbucks and McDonalds; the growing disdain for companies who are actively destroying our planet and people's lives is obvious, and these “ethically washed” advertisements, while deceptive, are also transparent to the media-literate.
What can we do about it?
These are some steps you can take to direct our resources to brands that are genuinely committed to ethical and sustainable practices:
Research the companies you purchase from regularly: Who do they invest in and/or who financially backs them? How is their labor force treated? Where do they source their materials? What are their advertisements targeting?
Support transparent brands: Shop small, women-owned, BIPOC-owned, and queer-owned businesses!
Set personal criteria: Establish your ethical and sustainability criteria, and use them as a filter when considering products or services
Question emotional appeals: Ask yourself if they really care about your climate anxiety. More critically, does their product actually have anything to do with solving it?
Always remember that the most power you have in a capitalist world comes from withholding your dollar!
What are your thoughts on Temu and ethics baiting?