Whether it's Lil Debbie shilling out relationship advice or Sunny D igniting a conversation about depression, contemporary brand Twitter can be a depressing and dark place.
Nothing feels more cynical than when a brand appropriates the standardized millennial voice -- ironic, detached, dejected -- and uses it to hock their emulsified meat products and drinkable corn syrups. There's no commitment to justice here, there's just marketing. So I'd love to call for a mass ban of corporations from Twitter, with one exception: Dr. Bronner's, one of the country's most popular organic, fair trade soap producers.
I don't trust any multimillion dollar corporation on Twitter. I do, however, place a reasonable amount of faith in this social justice soap.
Dr. Bronner's is best known for their all-purpose soaps (used for anything from washing your face to killing your dog's fleas, and cleaning your bong) and long-winded labels, which feature references to world religion and calls to end the war on drugs. The main ingredients in the brand's products are both organic and fair trade. Dr. Bronner's commitment to social justice has been present since the brand's inception, and the company now dedicates approximately one-third of its profits to various social causes.
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All of this is reflected in the brand's social voice on Twitter. Unlike brands like Sunny D which capitalize on the millennial mental health crisis without doing anything to abate it, Dr. Bronner's shares stories written by real journalists of real value to millennials.
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They're loud advocates for a fair living wage, having donated over $500,000 to minimum wage campaigns in 2016 and paying above the living wage in their own company. There isn't much to be cynical about here -- the brand tweets what they practice, and what they practice is good.
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Even though soap has no direct connection to cannabis, Dr. Bronner's frequently shares stories and posts tweets in support of legalization.
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And while caps lock should be banned from Twitter, I'll make an exception for the random tweets Dr. Bronner's routinely posts about ending the war on drugs.
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Outside of social causes, I particularly love the brand's tweets that are just basic tenets of human morality. The tweets don't have any cunning wordplay or cynical references to pop culture. Dr. Bronner's sometimes shares moral principles that, simply stated, likely drive down their Twitter engagement.
There's absolutely nothing viral about tweets like these ones -- hence, I love 'em.
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There's nothing shareable about death, and yet somehow this tweet exists:
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And who else would fill out this Twitter poll besides your radical aunt and your high school creative writing teacher a *little too obsessed* with recycling? Nothing about this tweet would make it viral. That's exactly what makes it good.
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The retweets, my friends, are also incredible.
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I don't want to get y'all too high on soap: At the end of the day, Dr. Bronner's is still a brand. They're on Twitter to advocate for causes and to sell their social justice soap. They have a hand sanitizer coming out that will soon be sold at Urban Outfitters. They talk about constructive capitalism.
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The brand posts plenty of tweets marketing their products, but there's nothing particularly malicious about them. Dr. Bronner's doesn't play on the 2020 election as Pop-Tarts recently did when they announced they were considering a presidential run. Their marketing-based tweets are plain and simple and limited to soap.
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Dr. Bronner's is a soap with a soapbox. They just it do better than anyone else out there on this brutal, cynical hellscape of a brandscape.
