When President Joe Biden’s first joint address to Congress drew just under 27 million viewers last month, critics were quick to note the sharp decline in viewership compared to past presidents. Former President Donald Trump’s first joint address drew 20 million more viewers, and former President Barack Obama had 50 million people tuned in for his.
Live television in general is facing big ratings challenges, even as we have been more likely to be at home over the last year. Even though this year’s Super Bowl pitted young phenom Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs against football icon Tom Brady, its ratings were the lowest they’d been since 2007. The Golden Globes saw a 13-year low in viewership, and ratings for the Oscars dropped like a rock, falling by over half from just one year earlier.
There are plenty of theories as to why these declines are happening, such as the switch to on-demand and streaming entertainment, or the pandemic keeping moviegoers at home so nominees are less well-known. As one former Oscars producer put it to the New York Times, “Minute-by-minute post-show ratings analysis indicated that ‘vast swaths’ of people turned off their televisions when celebrities started to opine on politics.”
People are ready to purge politics from their lives where they can. Love or hate Trump, his time in the White House meant huge ratings for news channels. But those ratings have fallen sharply during the much-more-conventional Biden administration. While things such as sports, entertainment, and consumer marketing have arguably always been political on some level, the Trump-era elevation of politics in nearly every facet of life is something the public seems ready to back away from.
Yet just as people seem to be backing away from constant politics, many companies and brands are taking the opposite approach. Take the battle over Georgia’s new voting laws, for example, which have drawn the ire of Major League Baseball, Delta, and Coca-Cola. Democrats cheered these companies and institutions for being courageous, while Republicans slammed them and proposed policies to remove tax breaks or other benefits these companies enjoy.
Corporate influence in politics used to be decried by the Left: 10 years ago, Gallup found three-quarters of Democrats felt corporations had too much influence over America, compared to only half of Republicans. Today, Republicans and Democrats are much closer in their shared disdain for corporate influence. Despite a generalized aversion to “corporate influence,” Democrats these days are much more open to companies wading into “political and social issues” — a position that puts them at odds with Republicans, to be sure, but also with political independents.
In my most recent Echelon Insights polling, we asked voters if they think companies should take stances on political and social issues. More said companies “should not take a stance one way or the other” (45%) than said “they should take stances on social and political issues” (34%). While Republicans and independents lean away from corporate engagement on these issues, a majority of Democrats (54%) say companies should dive in.
Younger people are the most eager to see companies speak out. These companies, which are often caught between a consumer base that is likely politically balanced and a vocal young workforce that demands liberal change and allyship, are therefore opting to jump in on issues that they likely would’ve sat out 10 years ago. But most voters (59%) say they do not trust big businesses to take positions that align with their values, and only a quarter think businesses take stands because they actually think it is the right thing to do.
To be sure, not all engagement in social or political issues is off-putting. Majorities say they would support companies committing to a more diverse workforce, for instance. And in my research, I’ve consistently found greater openness to companies taking stances on issues such as gender equality and equal pay, racial justice, and the environment — particularly when those stances are backed by action and the businesses’ own operations rather than just public positioning. (Progressive political preaching coming from Hollywood, an industry notorious for pay inequities, poor treatment of women and people of color, and so on, comes across like nails on a chalkboard.)
In general, people are looking to turn the temperature down and return to a time when they did not have to think about political conflict as often. They’re tuning out speeches from the president and pop culture icons alike. And while they’re more than happy for companies and industries to do work to create a cleaner, more equitable world, there’s not a lot of evidence that people want politics infused into their leisure time and consumer choices.
