Opinion fromAshley Humphrys, EVA BC’s Manager of Social Enterprise and the Be More Than a Bystander program
What corporate leaders can learn from the Callaway Golf and Good Good Golf ad about organizational culture, bystander action and accountability
In August, Good Good Golf released an advertisement promoting a co-branded Callaway Golf driver. In the video, Good Good’s co-founder, Garrett Clark, runs towards golfer Alexis Miestowski after she reaches for a club in his bag, shoves her to the ground and tells her, “Do not touch my new driver.”
The ad was quickly criticized for depicting and trivializing violence against women and removed from both companies’ social media accounts. Good Good Golf produced the video, but Callaway later acknowledged it had reviewed and approved the content.
For organizations, the most important question isn’t “How did someone come up with this idea?” It’s “How did an idea like this make it all the way through?”
What the ad normalized
Violence against women continues to be minimized, dismissed and made into a punchline. Good Good has said the ad was intended as a parody. But for organizations, intent is not the only thing that matters. Leaders need to consider impact, the context and the messages. This matters even more in golf which has historically been a male-dominated space. So how women are represented in those spaces matters. Especially with Good Good Golf’s reach of two million YouTube subscribers who are largely men between the ages of 18-34.
When violence against women becomes a punchline for an advertisement, we need to ask what message that’s sending.
The corporate lessons are more important than one bad advertisement
After an incident like this, leaders need to start asking better questions:
- Where were there opportunities to intervene?
An ad goes through many stages, teams and approval levels. It doesn’t rely on one person’s judgment; many people had the opportunity to question what they saw.
This brings us back to workplace culture. Do people recognize that this is something that is harmful? Do they feel comfortable questioning these decisions and speaking up?
- Whose perspective was missing?
Diverse teams aren’t just about numbers. Different experiences and perspectives help identify these risks and impacts that others are missing.
But representation only goes as far as culture allows — do all team members feel safe challenging these decisions?
- What does accountability look like?
Removing the content and apologizing are necessary steps.
But accountability is asking what allowed this to happen and changing those conditions. What changes are happening within the company as a result of this?
If the content is removed, but the conditions that allowed it to happen stay the same, then has anything truly changed?
Culture is shaped, in part, by media
Media and advertising shape what we see as normal and funny. Organizations with this much reach have enormous influence.
This example shows us what we commonly see in workplaces. There are moments where people see an issue, feel uncomfortable, but don’t know what to say or do.
Workplaces need to have diverse representation and a culture where people can speak freely when they recognize harm.
