Performative Activism

Many food brands are disassociating from their racist food branding. Recently, Trader Joe’s renewed its commitment to ending all-Americanized brand lines of international products such as Trader José and Trader Ming’s. Read the full article here. Takeaway: Consumers will call you out for performative activism. 

[Update: Trader Joe’s reversed its commitment to ending its Americanized brand lines of international products. They posted a statement on their website saying, “following were inaccurate reports that the petition prompted us to take action. We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist. We do not make decisions based on petitions.” Moving forward, Trader Joe’s says it will base its decisions on what product names to keep, “solely on input from its employees and customers and not Bedell’s petition.”]