August 14, 2025
When Cancel Culture Strengthens Your Brand — And When It Doesn’t
In today’s highly scrutinized world, a company’s values and mission aren’t just statements on a wall, they’re a blueprint for decision-making in times of crisis. Take cancel culture, for example. Outrage can strike at any moment. But whether it hurts or helps your brand often comes down to one thing: alignment with your core values and those of your primary stakeholders (key customers, for example). When your brand knows what it stands for, you can quickly decide whether to lean in, retreat, or defend. Without that clarity, every crisis becomes reactive and potentially damaging. Our latest blog explores how cancel culture interacts with brand values, and why alignment is your most reliable guide in turbulent times.
At Marx Layne & Company, we’ve seen time and again that outrage is not always a crisis — sometimes, it’s a clarifying moment for a brand. In the heat of a controversy, it’s tempting to view every wave of criticism as a threat to survival. But the truth is, some “cancellations” are little more than non-ideal customers self-selecting out of your audience. In those cases, the noise can actually strengthen loyalty among your core customers if you handle it decisively and strategically. The challenge lies in knowing the difference between outrage that can be leveraged and outrage that must be defused.
Why some brands thrive during cancel culture
Cancel culture operates on the assumption that widespread social pressure will force brands to back down or change course. But that pressure isn’t evenly distributed. Often, those leading the charge aren’t your best customers, aren’t likely to become customers, and may even represent values or lifestyles in direct opposition to the ones your brand embodies.
Handled with clarity and confidence, this dynamic can result in:
- Stronger brand identity – because you’re signaling exactly who you are and who you serve.
- Deeper customer loyalty – as your core audience rallies in defense of your values.
- Free visibility – controversies can put your name in front of millions, without a dime spent on media.
When cancel culture is dangerous
Of course, not every backlash should be ignored. Sometimes, the criticism comes from your most loyal customers — or from groups you need to grow your business. In these cases, dismissing outrage can create long-term damage, erode trust, and alienate critical stakeholders.
The difference often comes down to three questions:
- Who is outraged? If it’s your target audience, take it seriously.
- What’s at stake? Is it a core value or a fixable misstep?
- Can you own the narrative? If you can’t frame the story quickly and credibly, others will do it for you
The Cancel Culture Risk/Reward Framework
How to approach a cancel culture moment
At Marx Layne, we advise clients to treat outrage not as a binary “good” or “bad” event, but as a decision point: Will engaging deepen your most profitable relationships, or will it fracture them?
Key steps:
- Map the outrage – Identify exactly who is driving it and where they fall in your customer base.
- Decide fast – Prolonged indecision erodes credibility on all sides.
- Communicate values – Speak to your core audience first, even if the public statement is broader.
- Stay consistent – Changing your position midstream often turns one angry group into two.
Cancel culture moments are stressful, but they can also be clarifying. When brands know who they are — and who they aren’t — they can navigate these storms with confidence, turn controversy into brand equity, and come out stronger on the other side. At Marx Layne & Company, we help organizations see these moments for what they are: a test not just of reputation, but of brand clarity.
Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
Marx Layne is your competitive advantage.
Your reputation and success are our only concerns.