Journal of Marketing Management

Marketing in a Divisive World: The Role of Political Forces in Shaping Marketing and Consumption

Politics is growing more divisive and marketers are under increasing pressure to respond. Marketing Week noted this shift shortly after President Trump returned to office in January 2025 (Bender, 2025). Since then, the socio-political climate has remained highly charged, shaped by geopolitical conflict, authoritarian and populist tendencies, and deepening tensions between states, markets, citizens and households (Ipsos, 2024). For marketing scholars and practitioners alike, politics is no longer a background condition. It is an active force shaping marketplace meanings, consumer expectations, corporate communication and brand risk.

The effects of divisive politics are difficult to isolate because politics now extends well beyond formal institutions, elections and state power. It is equally embedded in lifestyles, identity claims, cultural narratives and consumption choices. The concept of lifestyle politics captures how consumers enact politically inflected ways of living in pursuit of social change (De Moor, 2017). As a result, practices once treated as neutral are increasingly interpreted as value-laden and ideological. Brands are therefore scrutinised not only for what they say, but for what they refuse to say.

A growing body of work demonstrates that politics enters marketing and consumption through multiple routes. Research has examined how brands align with sociopolitical causes (Hoffmann et al., 2020; Key et al., 2023; Vredenburg et al., 2020), how consumers respond emotionally and behaviourally to those efforts (Wannow et al., 2024; Zhou et al., 2025), and how political ideology shapes consumer evaluations including food preferences and brand attachment (Chan & Ilicic, 2019; Tiganis et al., 2023). Other studies have explored how boycotts, buycotts and political consumerism affect marketplace outcomes (Liaukonytė et al., 2023), while others have traced the rise of far-right consumer culture and resistance to liberal ideals and political correctness in marketing (Leidig, 2023; Ulver & Laurell, 2020).

Recent work highlights the growing importance of politically engaged intermediaries and digital infrastructures. Social media influencers can mobilise participation in political issues, curate hybrid political-commercial identities, and shape audience responses to contested causes (Harff & Schmuck, 2024; Reinikainen et al., 2025; Thomas & Fowler, 2023). As is increasingly well known, online environments facilitate the spread of misinformation, falsehoods and distorted political narratives which, in turn, affect information sharing, opinion formation and contribute to polarisation (Weismueller et al., 2024). Under these conditions, brands may seek silence or neutrality, but silence itself can function as a political signal, carrying its own risks and inviting backlash (Pöyry & Laaksonen, 2022; Zaman Malik et al., 2025).

Over the last decade, the Journal of Marketing Management has published work on the politics of community and market transformation (Moufahim et al., 2018), racial dynamics in markets and marketing systems (Thomas et al., 2020), social movements and consumer culture theory (Patsiaouras, 2022) and critical approaches to social marketing (Gordon et al., 2022). More recent contributions address consumer activism and alternative consumption (Casey & Tadajewski, 2023; Kozinets & Seraj-Aksit, 2024), ethical and morally reflexive influencer cultures (Aboelenien et al., 2023; Grgurić Čop et al., 2024), cancel culture and possibilities for brand forgiveness (Costa & Azevedo, 2024), the politics embedded in consumer culture theory itself (Bettany & Coffin, 2024) and brand activism under conditions of permacrisis (Anisimova et al., 2025). This Special Issue builds on those conversations while extending them to the broader question of how political forces shape marketing and consumption in an increasingly divisive world.

Important questions remain unresolved. Under what conditions does political engagement enhance rather than erode brand value? Why do some consumers reward political positioning while others respond with resistance, backlash or disengagement? How do algorithmic environments, misinformation and influencer ecologies amplify, refract or distort political signals in the marketplace? How do race, nationalism, populism, anti-DEI criticism and geopolitical conflict reshape legitimacy, inclusion and exclusion across markets?

This Special Issue seeks contributions that examine how political forces enter the marketplace, how they shape consumer responses, and how marketers navigate the opportunities and hazards that follow. We invite conceptual, theoretical, methodological and empirical work, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method and interdisciplinary research. We particularly welcome submissions that clarify when political engagement creates value, when it deepens polarisation, and when silence or neutrality becomes untenable. Submissions from a wide range of cultural and geopolitical contexts are especially encouraged. Traditional text-based manuscripts are welcome, as are alternative representational formats where appropriate and consistent with Journal of Marketing Management policy.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Political ideologies, identities and lifestyle politics: How do political forces shape consumption choices, brand perceptions, media use and information processing?
• Explicit political stances, silence and neutrality in brand communication: When, why, and how does taking a political stance, or the refusal to engage in such, generate support, scepticism, backlash or disengagement?
• Consumer activism, boycotts, buycotts and cancel culture: How do consumers mobilise for or against brands, and what determines escalation, forgiveness or longer-term market consequences?
• Influencers, creators and political-commercial hybrids: How do influencers, celebrities, and other intermediaries blur the boundaries between promotion, identity politics, advocacy and civic participation?
• Digital platforms, algorithms and misinformation: How do platform design, governance, recommendation systems and mis/disinformation shape exposure to and responses to political marketplace content?
• Race, nationalism, populism and anti-DEI movements: How do contested political projects reshape inclusion, exclusion, legitimacy and representation in markets?
• Ethics, responsibility and governance: What normative, regulatory and strategic questions arise when market actors seek to leverage political issues or influence public discourse?
• Methodological and theoretical innovation: What new concepts, frameworks and methods are needed to study politics in contemporary marketing and consumption?

The full Call for Papers including references can be found at the JMM blog site: https://www.jmmnews.blog