Should Companies Comment On Politics? A Branding Expert Weighs In

A few months ago, I had drinks with a friend who was visiting from out of town. We were laughing, then his face got serious. “I have a question,” he said. “Do I have to get rid of my New Balances?” It was mid-November, just a few weeks after the election when the sneaker company’s VP of public affairs got himself into trouble by telling a Wall Street Journal reporter that he supported Trump as a candidate because of his position on TPP. Liberals responded by encouraging a boycott of New Balance and in the most dramatic cases, posted videos of themselves burning their sneakers on social media. My friend, a proud progressive, wanted to know if wearing his new shoes, purchased just a few weeks before the scandal, would brand him as a Trump supporter. I told him to wait it out. In a few weeks, people would barely remember that time that the New Balance VP put his foot in his mouth by weighing in on politics. Read more at Forbes.