Activist brands: exploring the boundaries of controversy

Recent events triggered consumer outrage towards brands taking a stand on controversial matters. However, the response to low controversial topics marketing's definition of controversy requires an understanding of consumers' subjective perceptions shaped by cognitive processes, emotions, experiences, and cultural backgrounds. Subjectivity influences consumer behavior, while cognitive processing facilitates information comprehension. An experimental study using controversy level and brand presence as independent variables and consumer perceptions as dependent variables revealed that consumers associate branded content with irritation. A statistically significant interaction indicated that controversial topics are perceived as more disturbing with brand presence, while noncontroversial topics are more disturbing without a brand.