Corporate Cancel Culture: The Farce of the Century

The earliest memory I have of cancel culture is with Chris Brown. I remember loving his music, his incredible voice, and just thinking he was going to have this massive career ahead. Then, in February 2009, photos of a physically abused Rihanna circulated and I was done with this man. Removed from the playlists, changed the station on the radio when his tracks would come on – he was eliminated from my life. That was also my first real memory of corporate cancel culture. Chris also had a deal with Got Milk and had ads throughout the country, and the company had to then release a statement denouncing the artist, and pulled the ads and their endorsement of Chris after these allegations arose. In that moment, Chris Brown was collectively cancelled. 

Cancel culture, and especially corporate cancel culture, usually takes two things into account before cancelling a person:

1. Is the thing they’re being accused of inarguably bad?
2. Does this person on the chopping block singularly make my business an exorbitant amount of money?

If the answer to #1 is yes, but the answer to #2 is no, then the person in question is disposable so they will then be cancelled, or at the very least publicly denounced. Someone like Chris Brown for Got Milk was likely making them a ton of money, but so would the next young pop star they signed a deal with, so he was replaceable and there is more brand value in that case in very loudly walking away from him vs. doubling down on him. Now, if the answer to #1 is yes, and the answer to #2 is also yes, that’s where things get complicated. 

Enter: Joe Rogan. It should go on record that it is inarguably bad for a non-Black person to use the N-word…

It should also go on record that Joe Rogan is a little bit racist, because nobody could so flippantly use the N-word so many times, across 70+ episodes of a podcast in this case, without being a bonafide racist. I don’t think that Rogan is a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, but like many racists, he’s just a regular person who consciously or subconsciously believes their race to be superior and or another race to be subordinate. 

We as a culture are so afraid of the word “racist”, when really, racism is one of the oldest “ism’s” of the human race. It’s been a staple of our collective history for centuries, and even though each generation has shimmers of progression and we sometimes fool ourselves into thinking the philosophy of racism will be somehow weeded out, like polio or the bubonic plague, but it absolutely isn’t going anywhere. So, why not get more comfortable talking about it?

Now that we’ve established that what Joe said (in 70+ episodes of the country’s most popular podcast) is inarguably wrong, let’s talk about why he will never be fully cancelled. Per the parentheses above, The Joe Rogan Experience is the most downloaded and most listened to podcast in the country and 2nd place isn’t even close. In addition to that, Rogan is wrapped up in a $100m exclusive Spotify deal, which means that his content is making the audio streaming brand even more money than that massive 9-figure number. So even though he messed up BIG, there’s no way in hell that Spotify would remove him from their platform because there’s clearly a massive audience following him, and if Amazon Music let’s say swooped in to nab those exclusivity rights – it would be very bad for Spotify’s bottom line. 

Being The Dominate Category Players Comes With A Tax To The Brand

As CEO, Daniel Ek, stated in his memo to the company, their macro goal is to become “the global audio platform”, which means in order to hit that target of billions of people around the world – not everyone will love everything on the platform. If they were a more targeted audio streamer, like say Tidal, a dissolution of a Joe Rogan type would actually be great for business because new members would flock to the platform (even if only temporarily) for taking a stand in the heat of the moment. But for Spotify, they’d lose the Joe Rogan fanbase likely permanently, and wouldn’t be able to recoup the lost members with net new ones from this “act of goodwill” so to speak. 

Spotify has chosen to hold holistic “creative freedom” above everything else. That, coupled with the goal of being the omnipotent player in worldwide audio, means they’re making an active choice for the brand of Spotify to mean less and less over time because they will be unable to stand for much if they’re trying to appeal to the masses. Pushing back against a Joe Rogan type is something challenger brands have the ability to do with so much upside (where you at, Pandora?), but for the established frontrunner, it’s as Ek says “a slippery slope.” Don’t get me wrong, being “necessary” is a really lucrative business to be in (just look at your local internet service provider), but when was the last time you had a positive feeling -- or any feeling for that matter -- about Spectrum?

All Eyes Are On Spotify To, As Rihanna Would Say: "Pull Up!"

Personally, I have never once listened to The Joe Rogan Experience. Being in the entertainment industry, I am aware it exists, and know from rankings that his podcast is the biggest in the nation, but nothing about Joe, his creepy key art, or his guests have ever made me even remotely interested in pressing play. The algorithm never pushes his show to me, and I go on about my business listening to the artists and podcasts that make sense for me. 

However, after this little mishap, like many Black consumers, my expectation for Spotify to close the gap and work hard to regain my trust has risen. I am on high alert. It’s no longer acceptable to just be the utilitarian service provider I subscribe to (if I choose to stay, that is), I now need to see them use their white guilt for good, and line the pockets of Black and otherwise marginalized audio creators in the process. I will be actively looking for overall deals, marketing spend, investment in new talent from marginalized groups, etc. Is it performative? Of course it is, I’m by no means naive to that, but that performance could change folks’ lives and livelihoods so if the check clears, we’re good… for now. 

On paper, that seems to be their plan based on the latest statement from Ek, who clearly hopes that they can keep Joe’s loyal fan base happy, while also working to earn back the fanbase of Black people and their allies who have placed the company under fire recently. 

Cancelled Over Perception More Than Reality

Ultimately, I’m not mad (nor surprised) at Joe Rogan for being a racist – racists are everywhere in our society and I refuse to give them my energy. I’m not mad (nor shocked) at Spotify for thinking about their bottom line – this is a capitalist society we live in after all. Honestly, the blame I have is more towards the rabid Joe Rogan fanbase who for 12 long years heard this man sling racial slurs and never spoke up or thought they should themselves tune out.

It is rather interesting, though, that this Rogan saga is happening simultaneously with Whoopi Goldberg getting suspended (read: cancelled) by the big wigs at ABC. Now, what’s tough to swallow here is that Whoopi was suspended almost immediately, even though her transgression was a one time thing, and she actually attempted to explain a thoughtful, albeit debatable, perspective on the holocaust vs. using slanderous language about an entire race of people over the recorded course of more than a decade. Neither trauma is better or worse, but my point here is that ABC didn’t cancel Whoopi because they were actually upset by her actions – they cancelled her out of fear of being seen as potential racists/anti-semites themselves. 

Makes me think of this recent tweet from Jemele Hill, because the sentiment absolutely rings true for just about every corporate entity:

Cancel culture in itself might be the biggest farce of this century. Corporations and swarms of people will “cancel” others, namely celebrities, not because they feel strongly about their inarguably bad choices, but because they themselves are so afraid of being seen as sharing those same philosophies (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia – you name it). Whether or not corporations actually have those inarguably bad values isn’t always the concern, it really all comes down to public perception and what you can get accused of believing. 

Alexa: Play “Say Goodbye” by Chris Brown… in retrospect, the most foreboding track on his 2005 debut album.