Last week at our Research Seminar Series, Daniel Winkler, a PhD student at the Institute for Retailing & Data Science (RDS), presented his current research project on platform power and cancel culture.

In a collaborative paper with Nils Wlömert (RDS) and Jūra Liaukonytė (Cornell University), he examines the effects of "cancel culture" on the consumption of an artist's creative work. Using the scandal surrounding musician R. Kelly as a case study and the music streaming data, Daniel found that while there was a decrease in streaming demand for the artist's music, this was mainly due to supply-side factors such as streaming platforms removing his songs from playlists, rather than demand-side factors where consumers chose to stop consuming his music. This finding suggests that consumers can separate the art from the artist and continue consuming the product even if the “producer” misbehaves. The study also found that news about R. Kelly's court trials and documentary releases had a positive promotional effect, suggesting that social media boycotts can generate additional publicity and achieve the opposite of some of their intended goals.

The talk stimulated vigorous and constructive discussion on the emerging phenomenon of cancel culture that contributes to a wide field of reputation management and is currently highly relevant for marketers. Many thanks to Daniel for the presentation!