Risk in the Age of Culture Wars

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of an influencer. Maybe because I grew up at the peak of YouTube where I watched, in real-time, the emergence of brand deals and paid partnerships. This fascination grew into closely watching when a TV show or movie lingers a little too long on a coffee pot or a pair of shoes because, there it was, an ad.

On top of that, being from the United States entails knowing the intimate relationship between culture wars and polarization. While it’s completely normal to veer towards those who agree with you and who share similar interests with you, the United States has become a playground for polarizing identity politics. As Ezra Klein writes in his book, Why We’re Polarized, the grocery shop you buy from to what music you listen to has now come with the signifier of your politics.

When I arrived at Polecat, then, it was a particular interest of mine that we could track those changing conversations and visualize how sentiment around a person, topic, company, etc. has changed over time. On top of that, we could also pick up on emerging themes across varying sectors and topics. When I saw the backlash to American Eagle’s ad with Sydney Sweeney, I couldn’t wait to look at them both through PolecatX.

PolecatX sentiment graph showing the sentiment of Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle along with the % of American Eagle's stock change from the past three months.

Key Moments:

1. Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle campaign drives stock surge amid mixed reactions and meme stock status (Yahoo! Finance; Investopedia).

2. Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad sparks controversy, igniting political discourse (The Economic Times; Bild; Hindustan Times).

3. Sydney Sweeney's campaign boosts American Eagle stock after President Donald J. Trump's praise amid the political backlash (DNYUZ; Vanity Fair).

4. American Eagle Outfitters experience stock fluctuations amid mixed market sentiment and speculation on its financial performance (Yahoo! Finance). 

I’m not here to tell you about my thoughts on the ad or what your thoughts on the ad should be. What I am here to show you is how Polecat can help businesses get out of their echo chambers and understand the full spectrum and nuance of conversations happening in culture and how those cultural conversations can help decisions made by a business. And there’s lot to say on Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle:

(1) Spotting Risk: On July 23rd, American Eagle releases their campaign with Sydney Sweeney and PolecatX immediately picked up on the mixed reactions to the ad. It’s interesting to point out here that PolecatX also picked up on the meme stock status of Sweeney’s ad, which was then followed by a surge in American Eagle’s ad. Additionally, Polecat’s RepVault allows businesses to visualize emerging themes. In RepVault, the emerging themes for American Eagle from the past two months when it comes to customer perceptions, ad perceptions, and celebrity endorsement disgrace, we see the following:

So, we know we can see emerging topics for a given company. But how is a business supposed to know if these topics are also high impact? How and when does a company know when to be concerned?

Well, in the case of American Eagle, the emerging topics perfectly mirror the highest impact topics as well.

(2) Managing Risk: After risk has been spotted, it’s important to manage it and stay on top of it. Polecat can help any company with just this. Within our RepVault platform, anyone is able to create an “Executive News Briefing” (ENB) that come out as frequently as on the hour and it’s up to you to determine what you want to hear about. With these capabilities, business executives can wake up each morning with the most pressing news and social media events more relevant to them. Additionally, we’ve recently added to sentiment (just like PolecatX) into our ENBs. At a glance, you can see the top headlines and immediately know if they’re healthy or concerning for your company’s reputation. 

As for PolecatX, the sentiment graph above shows our platform picking up on the campaign’s controversy right before sentiment regarding and the stock price of American Eagle drops.

(3) Mitigating Risk: Polecat Intelligence has a long-standing relationship with Willis Towers Watson (WTW), and we have recently been supporting WTW in their Celebrity Disgrace project. According to James Gillespie of WTW, "Polecat’s data enabled Willis to deliver a market first in the quantification of Celebrity Disgrace risk. Powered by rich, real-time Polecat data, the Willis Celebrity Disgrace analytics model gives our clients deep insight into the financial risk associated with a celebrity-backed product release, as well as best-practice enterprise risk management through its ability to explore insurance structure effectiveness."

While this blog zoomed in on one particular campaign, it doesn’t mean that companies aren’t faced daily with cultural opposition and tough decisions. Just days after American Eagle’s campaign, e.l.f. faced consumer backlash for their new campaign featuring Matt Rife, an American comedian. Zooming out, it becomes evident that everyone is watching and everything is trying to take the next right step. With echo chambers all around us, though, it’s hard to not only hear the signal through the noise, but to also understand what signals you should be listening to and from who. As our CEO, James Lawn says, “Taken with an open mind, Responsible Business Intelligence enables individuals, businesses and organisations to understand the breadth of what society is thinking about over any given timeframe - what's dominating, what's emerging and what's declining.”

At Polecat, we’re here to help you understand your company, the world, and how it all fits together.