Work

Doubling Down on Brand Activism: A Multilayered Framing Contest Following Brand-Initiated Provocation

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: While brands are often drawn into social controversies, the public debates that follow brand‑initiated provocations remain understudied. We examine how public debate evolves when activist brands engage in conflict framing—intentionally casting an issue as a conflict of frames. Based on a frame analysis of a public debate that followed a brand’s attempt to provoke deliberation about entrenched societal practices with significant climate impacts, we develop a model of brand activism as a multilayered debate. The model shows, on one hand, stakeholder reactions that criticize the brand activism campaign across multiple layers of frames and, on the other hand, the brand’s steadfast commitment to foreground its conflict frame—milk as an environmental and sociopolitical issue. We advance theorizations of framing and engagement strategies in contested contexts by showing how brand–stakeholder interactions change following conflict framing grounded in defiance, and we identify four doubling-down tactics: rebutting , retaliating , redirecting , and rebelling .

Source: Business & Society

DOI: 10.1177/00076503261478754

Authors: Meri Frig, Laura Olkkonen, Pia Polsa, Salla-Maaria Laaksonen

Institutions: Aalto University, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, Hanken School of Economics, University of Helsinki

Language: English

Topic: Public Relations and Crisis Communication

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,900

Funder: Academy of Finland