"What was once a stabilizing force - media as a broker of democratic discourse and economic value - is now a fault line. Fragmented, politicized and increasingly treated as a risk rather than a utility, the business of media is being reshaped in real time. And if that sounds abstract, just look at how advertisers (the supposed bedrock of the industry) responded to Disney's Jimmy Kimmel Live! suspension: with silence, with hedging and a shared commitment to saying absolutely nothing."
"The turning point came in April 2024 when Bud Light's collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney triggered a backlash that tanked sales and led to internal restructuring at owner Anheuser-Busch InBev. Since then, the instinct inside marketing departments has calcified: avoid controversy, scale back DEI, let the keyword-blocking software do the talking. The era of "brand purpose" has been replaced by one of ambient fear."
Several high-profile events — a late-night host's suspension, a major antitrust challenge to digital advertising, and the looming U.S. fate of TikTok — exposed widening fractures in media. Media no longer functions reliably as a broker of democratic discourse and economic value; it has become fragmented, politicized and increasingly treated as a risk. Advertisers reacted to controversy with silence and hedging rather than public stances, prioritizing caution. The Bud Light–Dylan Mulvaney backlash in April 2024 hardened marketing instincts: avoid controversy, scale back DEI efforts, and rely on keyword-blocking tools. Brand purpose has largely yielded to ambient fear, pushing advertisers toward herd behavior.
Read at Digiday
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