When Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard announced earlier this month that he was giving 98% of the company to a nonprofit and a trust with future profit directed toward helping the environment and combating the climate crisis, some people responded with plans to spend more with the retailer (even if there were potential tax motives).

With costs up and midterms on the horizon, experts said people are thinking critically not just about which politicians should get their vote, but which brands should get their business—based on where they stand and how they spend their money.

Practice what you post

In the wake of the Dobbs decision in June, Mark Hanis, co-founder of Progressive Shopper, told us he saw a bump in downloads of the web extension—which identifies the political parties of politicians that brands have donated to based on FEC data—from about 13,000 to 20,000 users.

According to Hanis, it’s all part of people paying more attention to where companies are donating politically and how well it matches up with their public statements or internal policies. “We see this left arm-right arm discrepancy and I think consumers are demanding [change],” he said.

What the data says

• A May study by business review platform Trustpilot found around half of consumers think it’s important for brands to take a stance on “ethical, sustainable, or political questions.” And while 70% of marketers agreed that taking an ethical stance is “increasingly important,” many brands don’t execute due to reasons like lack of know-how or fear of commercial impact, according to the study.
• Another study from consumer data platform Resonate showed the number of consumers who are more likely to purchase from what they see as “pro-choice brands” is on the rise. Among respondents, 33.4% said they were more likely to purchase brands they saw as pro-choice and 36% were less likely to purchase from those they saw as pro-life.

“All of our lives are kind of compressing into, ‘Where do I shop? How do I vote? What do I say on social media? Who do I work for?’ It all relates to these values,”  Ericka McCoy, CMO at Resonate, told us. Read more.—KH

Shocking research this week from Morning Consult: Gen Z adults like YouTube more than TikTok.

The finding is part of its inaugural Gen Z’s Favorite Brands report based on the company’s brand intelligence platform, which polls consumers about more than 4,000 brands and products daily. Data for this report was pulled from surveys conducted May 1–August 21, including an average of ~2,000 Gen Z adult respondents—those born between 1997 and 2004—per brand.

Tech brands dominated the top of the rankings, but TikTok didn’t even make the top 40. Gen Zers also have a particular affinity for food and beverage companies, especially those in the snack and candy categories.

Gen Z s YouTube: It clocked 86% favorability with Gen Z adults, meaning that share said they have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable opinion of the brand.

Google ranked at No. 2 with 84% favorability, followed by Netflix at 82% and Amazon at 80%.

TikTok scored 69% favorability among Gen Zers, lower than many other brands on Gen Z’s list of faves. But it’s more popular among this group than it is with the general public and the generation just above them.

• 39% of US adults said they have a favorable view of TikTok.
• 54% of millennials said the same.

Snack time: M&M’s came in at No. 5 with 80% favorability among all Gen Z adults. The snack brand is more popular among women than men, so perhaps its marketing team had that in mind when it announced its latest character, Purple, the first female peanut M&M.

Doritos, KitKat, Oreo, Gatorade, Cheetos, Sprite, Pringles, and Capri Sun also made the top 40. Maybe it’s time to lay off the sweets, Gen Z.—AM

Future Social is a weekly newsletter on social media, content, and creators from Jack Appleby, a Morning Brew creator who’s worked in social media for 10 years at companies like Beats by Dre, Microsoft, and Twitch. Check out an excerpt from one of his pieces below, and sign up for Future Social here.

Never thought I’d write, “I may need to see the booty,” in a professional sense, but here we are. Thanks, Adam Levine—now I’ve gotta explain why, no matter how tempted brands might be, it’s in bad taste to turn gross celebrity moments into social content.

Dirty pop, baby you can’t stop

His marooniest became the internet’s main character last week when a series of DMs leaked, allegedly showing Levine sending flirtatious messages to women who aren’t his wife. Between his major celebrity status and the ridiculousness of the messages, it became meme wildfire.

I’m not qualified to educate on pop culture (I still listen to emo music), so here’s a few sources on the backstory + the memes that emerged:

• Esquire’s explainer on the full scandal
• Know Your Meme’s explanation of…sigh…“I may need to see the booty”
• The resulting memes of the mess

I’ll admit, I laughed at a few. And memes have even shown emotional value as a coping mechanism, so while I generally don’t meme these moments, if they give ya a laugh, you do you.

But I’m going back to the earlier bit. This Levine moment—or Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, or any down moment in someone’s personal life (celebrity or not)—is not a marketing opportunity for cheap internet points. Keep reading here.—JA

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

LinkedIntriguing: The platform has new post templates to help add some flair to your next update.

People are ’Tokking: A recap of some of the trends happening on the platform right now.

Reel talk: For those of you not on TikTok, here are the trends happening on Instagram Reels.

Learn: Got a case of meeting overload? We know the feeling. That’s why we created a time management master class that can help you prioritize, perform, and get sh*t done without the extra meetings. Sign up now.

Your brand, our voice: Ahem (*clears voice*). We take pride in what we put out into the world, and that includes crafting custom branded content for our beloved partners. Tell your brand’s story in new and exciting ways with the Morning Brew Creative Studio.

Create demand, build a brand, and destroy commodity content.

Find your instant advantage today—listen to B2B Growth now.

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is fake?

1. 60 couples got married at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Sweden
2. Upwork’s singing corpse declares the old way of working is dead
3. These back-opening briefs encourage men to check for prostate cancer
4. Yankee Candle releases black-flame candle ahead of Hocus Pocus 2 release

Keep scrolling for the answer.

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Product placement could start infiltrating podcasts. Here’s how one network is experimenting with it
• After bouncing back in 2022, ad spend is expected to slow in 2023
• Meet the gold brands that are changing the landscape of the sport