Get woke or go broke?
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When you buy your trainers, do you want to make a political statement? Businesses want to attract consumers by advertising their commitment to liberal causes like diversity and tackling climate change. It is a phenomenon known as woke capitalism. But is it a welcome sign that multinationals are becoming socially responsible? Or is it just the latest trick by business to persuade us to part with our cash, and a smokescreen to disguise the reluctance of many companies to pay their fair share of taxes? The Economist's Philip Coggan asks whether it's a case of getting woke or going broke.
Contributors: Dr Eliane Glaser - author of Get Real: How to See Through the Hype, Spin and Lies in Modern Life Dan Mobley - Corporate Relations Director, Diageo Saker Nusseibeh - Chief Executive at Hermes Investment Anand Giridharadas - author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World Kris Brown - president of Brady United, a gun violence prevention organisation Abas Mirzaei - Professor of Marketing at Macquarie Business School Doug Stewart - Chief Executive of Green Energy UK
Producer: Ben Carter Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
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| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:41.0 | Thank you for listening to this edition of Analysis, the program that tries to get behind the stories in the news. |
| 0:47.0 | I'm Ben Carter, the producer. |
| 0:50.0 | In this program, Philip Kogan asks whether Woke Capitalism is just a cynical attempt by big business to showcase its right on credentials, or can companies genuinely have a social conscience. When you buy a pair of trainers, what determines your choice? |
| 1:09.4 | Do you want the cheapest pair or the snazzyest, the best for running or the most comfy or do you want a pair that makes a |
| 1:16.4 | statement about your social and political attitudes if social issues guide |
| 1:20.8 | your buying you might have been attracted or repelled by a marketing |
| 1:24.7 | campaign in 2018. |
| 1:26.7 | Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. When they talk about the greatest team in the history of the sport. |
| 1:37.0 | Nike's use of Colin Kapanik, an American football star who had protested against police violence by kneeling during the national anthem |
| 1:45.5 | is part of a trend that's been dubbed woke capitalism. It's about companies getting involved in |
| 1:50.8 | social and political issues, usually on the liberal side of the spectrum. |
| 1:55.4 | I'm Philip Kogan of the Economist and in this edition of analysis I'll examine what woke |
| 2:00.2 | capitalism is all about and where it's heading next. |
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