The effect of digital activism on brands' communication works

In today's world where everything is digitized, "digital activism", which expresses individuals' activist actions and discourses through digital platforms, greatly affects the communication strategies of brands that act with the awareness of being a part of the solution to social problems. In general, the study focuses on the changes in the field of new communication technologies on activist movements and brand communication, in particular, the effect of digital activism on the communication activities of brands and how consumers react to the communication strategies of brands. Because the communication activities carried out by brands within the scope of digital activism may not be welcomed by consumers in some cases. For this reason, brands shape their communication strategies in line with the expectations and demands of consumers and, more generally, society. In this context, the study aims to guide brands and experts working on this subject. The study aims to reveal how brands stand against digital activist movements and how activist movements affect communication studies. For this purpose, the "George Floyd Protests", which started after an Afro-American citizen named George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in May 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, and turned into a global rebellion in a short time thanks to social media, is considered as an example. Within the scope of the George Floyd Protests, in addition to the people advocating equality and freedom, many brands carried out various communication activities to raise awareness about the problem of racism and police violence, which flared up after Floyd's death. The steps taken by the brands were examined by the case analysis method. The social media shares of the brands and the statements they made on the website were handled with the content analysis method. Although digital activism is a popular topic in the literature, there are very few studies that deal with digital activism at the level of consumers and brands. In this sense, the study is important in terms of both filling the said gap and creating a source for the studies that can be done in this field. Keywords: activism, digital activism, brand, brand activism, racism.