2022 will be the ‘Year of Accountability’

What a year it’s been: a pandemic, a lockdown, record unemployment, continued racial reckoning, protests, an attack on the capital, inflation, an expanding wealth gap, an abortion rights struggle and fraying civil discourse.

All of it prompts every American to reflect on who we are in this society, where we fit, and with whom we want to associate. In the meantime, everyone’s weighing in on social media, ready to put transgressors on blast. Today’s culture has become a minefield, especially for brands.

Since mid-2020, brands have increasingly spoken up about social injustice. In 2022, we will look closely at how brands have done. It will be the Year of Accountability. And the bar is high.

The mood, depending on where you spend your time, is arguably sour. Two in five adults we recently surveyed say civil discourse has become more difficult in the last year, with most calling the internet the “main cause” of uncivil discourse. Online disputes have cost (59%) of millennials and 54% of Gen Xers relationships.