Maisie Lloyd
Maisie is the Digital Content Manager at Intelligency, handling all things creative for the agency. Her experience centres around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
Brand marketing isn’t just about selling a product or service; it’s about representing a lifestyle, belief system, or set of values. It allows audiences to build a rapport with the brands they invest in and, in many cases, to align their purchasing choices with their personal beliefs.
What is virtue signalling in marketing?
Virtue signalling in marketing occurs when brands publicly support social or charitable causes primarily to appear caring or socially responsible. Often, this support is limited to surface-level gestures rather than meaningful action that creates real impact for the communities involved.
Why is virtue signalling a disingenuous way to connect with audiences?
When brands claim to uphold values with social or ecological significance, audiences expect accountability. If a brand’s support appears driven by profit or optics rather than genuine commitment, it signals a lack of integrity. This disconnect can erode trust and damage the relationship brands work hard to build with their audience.
Performative action strips authenticity and meaning from brand action. A common example is brands changing their profile pictures to reflect the colours of a flag or movement without making any tangible effort to support or uplift the communities they claim to stand with.
Attempting to look good by doing the bare minimum in wider social conversations often results in backlash and public critique. In these cases, brands benefit from the perception of being “good” without sustaining meaningful action or responsibly supporting the causes they align themselves with.
How do brands implement authenticity and sincerity with brand marketing?
The key to supporting causes or values as a brand is to effect change as and where possible, without needing any credit for doing so. Brands can often connect on a better level when they work with impacted communities to deliver change.
Recognition shouldn’t be the main outcome brands want to achieve, after all, that’s virtue signalling. It’s about ensuring support is there for people who are impacted, even when it’s not a day of raising awareness, rather taking independent action, unprompted by anyone, driven by a brand’s desire to make a difference.
Brands that remain educated are better positioned to support the causes they value. Understanding ongoing conversations around sustainability, the LGBTQ+ community, and socio-economic issues ensures that brand involvement is informed, respectful, and genuinely contributes to positive change.
Virtue signalling may generate short-term approval, but it rarely builds lasting trust. In an era where audiences are increasingly informed and values-driven, brands are judged not by what they say, but by what they consistently do. Authenticity in marketing is not about visibility or validation, but about meaningful action that aligns with a brand’s values long after the conversation has moved on.
