When Culture Marketing Tastes Bad

• 97% value authenticity. One campaign can destroy it.

• Culture borrowed becomes backlash remembered.

• 87% will abandon brands that betray their values.

• The biggest marketing risk isn't irrelevance. It's cultural blindness.

The difference between cultural relevance and cultural appropriation is often just one decision in the boardroom. Handled poorly, it can leave a bad taste in your mouth.

This Women's Month, Glenlivet's now-withdrawn campaign featuring actress Dineo Langa became an uncomfortable reminder of that reality. By invoking the legacy of the 1956 Women's March, the iconic phrase "Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo," and imagery of liberation icons to market whisky, the campaign triggered immediate public backlash. Social media users described the advert as "disgusting", "distasteful" and "tone-deaf". The criticism quickly escalated beyond public opinion, with both the African National Congress (ANC) and Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, formally condemning the campaign. Within hours, the advert was removed and public apologies followed.

Culture Borrowed Becomes Backlash Remembered

The story isn't really about Glenlivet. It's about what happens when brands confuse cultural symbolism with cultural permission.

One of the biggest misconceptions in modern marketing is that culture can be accessed by hiring the right influencer and attaching them to an important social moment. It can't.

Influencers amplify culture. They don't legitimise a brand's place within it.

The Numbers Have Warned Before

Research consistently shows consumers reward authenticity and punish brands that manufacture it. Nearly 97% of consumers say authenticity influences the brands they support, yet only about half believe brands communicate authentically. Even more telling, 87% say they would stop supporting a brand whose actions contradict its stated values.

Culture isn't a creative backdrop. It's lived experience. It's history. It's collective memory. When brands borrow that meaning instead of contributing to it, audiences recognise the difference instantly.

The most effective culture marketing asks a difficult question before a creative brief is ever approved:

Does our brand have the right to be here?

That's a very different question from asking whether a campaign is attention-grabbing.

Women's Month, Heritage Month, Youth Day and other significant moments aren't seasonal marketing opportunities. They're emotionally charged spaces shaped by struggle, identity and progress. Brands that enter these conversations without cultural sensitivity risk turning celebration into commercialisation.

What's equally striking is how often backlash catches organisations by surprise. That points to a bigger issue: many businesses still treat cultural intelligence as a communications function instead of a strategic capability. Cultural due diligence should sit alongside legal review, brand safety and commercial approval. It requires diverse voices, cultural experts and people empowered to challenge ideas before they reach the public.

Because culture doesn't forgive ignorance simply because intentions were good.

The brands winning today aren't the ones inserting themselves into every cultural conversation. They're the ones that understand where they genuinely belong, when they can create meaningful value, and when respect matters more than visibility.

Checklist for CMOs: Prevent Strategic Failures

• Trend-chasing vs shaping: Don't enter cultural conversations too late or without genuine understanding.
• Approval protocol: A process that lacks true due diligence or awareness will compromise brand values, identity and culture equity.
• Values alignment: Consumers expect alignment. They can smell manufactured authenticity from a digital mile away, and an apology after the fact does not bode sincerity.

In culture marketing, relevance isn't earned by showing up.

It's earned by knowing why you deserve to be there. And not leaving a bad taste in your mouth.