Marta Orosz, Author at Pavement Pieces https://pavementpieces.com From New York to the Nation Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:50:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Late Support for Black Lives Matter Thrusts Brands into Damage Control https://pavementpieces.com/late-support-for-black-lives-matter-thrusts-brands-into-damage-control/ https://pavementpieces.com/late-support-for-black-lives-matter-thrusts-brands-into-damage-control/#respond Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:02:07 +0000 https://pavementpieces.com/?p=23288 Dozens of companies have taken actions that range from social media posts to new products to more diverse boards.

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BandAid finally caught up with the times this week – the 100-year old company announced it would launch bandages in a range of brown skin tones. Like many of the brands joining a wave of public support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, the announcement fell short.

A number of U.S. companies and global corporations have publicly taken a stand to support protests against racism and police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 29 – a departure from years past when these same brands typically stayed silent. But these reactive gestures aren’t setting the companies apart like they may have hoped, and instead show that consumers are holding companies to a higher standard than before.

Dozens of companies have taken actions that range from social media posts to new products to more diverse boards. Quaker Oats  is renaming its Aunt Jemima brand, a name born out of racial stereotypes, as is Eskimo Pie ice cream. Levi Strauss & Co. and Gap Inc. have committed to more representation of Black and Latinx people on their boards. NBC announced plans to diversify writers for TV shows.

For companies, it’s clear that they need to go beyond just social media posts to connect with the BLM movement, said Allen Adamson, co-founder of Metaforce, a brand consulting firm in New York. Taking tangible action, however, does not necessarily mean sales will increase. “At the moment, it’s not clear how they will stand out,” Adamson said.

That’s in contrast to when Nike announced an advertising campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in September 2018. Kaepernick, while playing for the San Francisco 49ers in 2016, kneeled during the pregame national anthem as a sign of protest against racial injustice and police brutality. This cost Kaepernick his NFL career, but Nike stuck to its contract with the quarterback.

The company’s share price fell on the news and some customers took to social media to boycott the brand and even burned some of their products. But online sales actually increased significantly more than the same time period the year before in the days following the announcement, according to an analysis by Edison Trends.

“Nike supported the issue at a time when it was not on everyone’s radar and raising awareness mattered,” Adamson said.

For Nike, this was an opportunity to become connected with a cause. But the environment is different today. Brands hoping to have their own Nike moment need to recognize that they are practicing defensive marketing and acting in a reactive, rather than a proactive, way. “Nike moved before BLM became a tidal wave,” Adamson said.

Consumers expect more than just supportive messaging on social media, according to a survey conducted by Morning Consult, a Washington-based market research company. Only 25% of respondents had a more favorable view of brands that supported the protests on social media, whereas over half of the respondents said they have a more favorable view of companies donating to community cleanups after the protests or setting up a fund for small businesses impacted by looting.

Companies though still consider it risky to speak up on politically loaded issues. But the recent wave of BLM support has received support from a wider background of people than in the past. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that 74% of Americans agree that the killing of George Floyd points to an underlying racial injustice problem.

“Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem was polarizing in 2016,“ said Christine Moorman, Senior Professor of Business Administration at Duke University and editor in chief of the Journal of Marketing, but now protesting against racism and police brutality are no longer as polarizing,

Most companies still want to play it safe. More than 80% of brands in a recent survey said they don’t think it’s appropriate for their brand to take a stance on politically charged issues, which is in line with results in recent years, according to the latest CMO survey published on June 16.

“If the issue is political or polarizing by definition, most companies won’t speak up,” said Moorman, who conducts the survey.

Taking the risk to publicly support a cause, as Nike did, could be a way for companies to stand out and boost sales. Of the companies that did take a stance on a political issue, more than 83% said it had a positive effect on attracting and retaining customers and business partners, and 90% said the decision helped their company stand out in the marketplace, according to the survey.

Companies need to commit to a long-term strategy and not just react to the news of the day, Adamson said. “Consumers are too sophisticated to let a brand capitalize on the situation,” he said.

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Physicians’ donations shift to Democrats, biotech money supports GOP in the primaries https://pavementpieces.com/physicians-donations-shift-to-democrats-biotech-money-supports-gop-in-the-primaries/ https://pavementpieces.com/physicians-donations-shift-to-democrats-biotech-money-supports-gop-in-the-primaries/#respond Tue, 11 Feb 2020 01:21:00 +0000 https://pavementpieces.com/?p=20332 A Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey shows 85% of Americans are in favor of the government doing more to help provide health insurance.

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 Faye, a 34-year-old woman from Southern California who uses a wheelchair used all her savings to fly in with her husband to volunteer for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders at the New Hampshire primaries.

“I couldn’t think of anything more important to do right now”, says her husband, Paul, 35, at a debate watch party at a venue on the west side of the Merrimack River in Manchester.

 At the moment, Faye and Paul may have reason for optimism. In a primary that is regarded as trend-setting for the presidential election in November, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is the leading candidate, polling at 28% of potential votes. In second position is former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 21% of prospective votes.

Medicare for all, an overhaul of the current health care system into a single-payer government-run health plan proposed by Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, is the main reason Faye and Paul support Sanders’ bid.

  Faye and Paul are not their real names.  Because they are disclosing personal medical information they have asked that their names not be revealed.

  “Bernie is on the side of the uninsured and underinsured”, said Ohio Senator Nina Turner and co-chair of the Sanders campaign, at a gathering of committed supporters at the debate watch party.

 Faye has cerebral palsy and had an eight-month gap in her health insurance which left her without medical coverage.

“We were hoping that she doesn’t get sick”, said her husband, who spends most of his time taking care of her. Paul’s income as a caregiver for his wife was considered too high, so they lost their Medicare coverage, a federally funded health insurance covering citizens with limited income.

 The couple was also no longer eligible for subsidies on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace because of Paul’s income. Paul challenged the decision of Covered California, the state’s official health marketplace, but after months of very little progress the couple enrolled in the private Kaiser health insurance.

“Kaiser is very expensive”, said Paul, “but we couldn’t wait forever.”

 Faye recalled that the months she wasn’t covered were “terrifying.” She had no regular doctor and had to pay for treatment out-of-pocket. “When you have cerebral palsy, stuff goes wrong quite often,’’ she added.

 A Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey shows 85% of Americans are in favor of the government doing more to help provide health insurance. It’s not only patients, but also the majority of physicians in the Granite State now supporting a single-payer health insurance system, said Gary Sobelson former president of the New Hampshire Medical Society, in a telephone interview.

“About one-third of my patients are on Medicare and this system works well for me,” said Sobelson, a family physician in Concord.

     Whether it will be “Medicare for all” proposed by Bernie Sanders and Warren or the less radical “Medicare for all who want it” suggested by Pete Buttigieg, doctors and their money are shifting their campaign contributions towards the Democratic Party.

    Health professionals donated $50 million to the Republican Party in the 2012 presidential campaign, which was $15 million more than what they gave the Democratic campaign. In the current presidential campaign the same group has donated $30.6 million to Democrats, which is twice as much that what they have given to President Trump’s re-election campaign according to data from the Open Secrets website which tracks campaign contributions.

“We shifted away from the Republican Party”, said Sobelson. He said that, decades ago, physicians were self-employed, running their business and, mostly,  Republican voters. But, he said that with more and more physicians working as employers in larger medical offices and hospitals their perception of the job changed.

   “We work now with the premise that everyone should be insured, whether they are unemployed, or students, 65 or 25 years old,” said Sobelson. “It’s the sub specialists who are concerned about lower reimbursements due to a government-run single-payer system, he added.  “Those who are making a large sum of money.”

Not everyone, however, in the New Hampshire medical community shares Sobelson’s views.  On the east side of the Merrimack River in Manchester, a rapidly growing biotech industry is concerned about losing money through Medicare-For-All and by proposals to cut drug prices.

   What was two centuries ago a hub for the textile industry has now turned into New Hampshire’s own Silicon Alley, focused on manufacturing human tissue and groundbreaking medical innovation. Both the Republican Governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, and Democrat Mayor Joyce Craig have big hopes for the over 200 companies in the biotech and medtech industry.

    But when Sanders and Warren announced their Medicare-ForAll program in the summer of 2019, it was bad news for the industry of biopharmaceuticals because the proposal would reduce the prices paid for drugs.  As a result, the Nasdaq Biotech Index fell 4.5%, stocks of biopharma companies with locations in New Hampshire such as Merck & Co., also went down 4%.

      While biotech stock prices recovered towards the end of the year, the nation’s largest biotech industry association, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), has so far donated more to the Republican Party, which is seeking to cut the scope of the Affordable Care Act.

    Tension in the biotech sector about policy steps to make health care affordable was still visible at the end of 2019.  In December last year 138 leaders of biotech companies wrote a letter to advocate for the rejection of the bipartisan Lower Drug Costs Now Act. This legislation, which is still pending in Congress, would allow the government to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies. Profits of biotech companies, an industry with high costs for research and development and a volatile market, fear significant losses.

BIO, which also represents New Hampshire biotech companies, did not answer questions on how biotech companies react to the increasingly popular Medicare-For-All.

Sobelson, however, hopes that this industry sector will not influence slow down the movement to extend public health insurance plans across the US.

“While biotech innovations and the medical tools are remarkable, even miraculous and physicians are extremely excited about innovations, this is somewhat marginal in the bigger picture,’’ said Sobelson.

Faye and her husband, Paul, spent about $3,000 on health care costs during the time they both weren’t covered. Paul was grateful that Faye stayed healthy throughout the eight months and had no serious health problems.  “I don’t think anyone should be in this position ever”, said Faye. “People’s health care should not be just simply cancelled.”

Marta Orosz is a graduate student in the Business and Economic Reporting Program

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