hugging the bear - revolt london (2025)

As brands faced mounting pressure to retreat from sustainability and social commitments, the question stopped being should we take a stand and started being can we afford to? Fear of greenwashing accusations, political backlash, and consumer polarisation had put purpose on the back foot. At Revolt, we set out to find a better path forward.

Hugging the Bear is a research report and strategic framework built on an original study testing whether the framing of social and environmental issues, not the issues themselves, is what makes them feel divisive. Across a nationally representative US survey of 2850 respondents, each issue was presented in two ways: a progressive, activist framing (poke the bear) and a unifying, values-based framing (hug the bear). Respondents ranked issues by importance, and results were analysed across the full sample and segmented by political affiliation, race/ethnicity, and age, measuring how much framing alone shifted perception and polarisation.

The findings make a clear commercial and strategic case for brands to stop avoiding difficult issues and start reframing them, leaning into universal values rather than activist language to bring more people in, not fewer.

role: As the lead researcher and author on this project, I worked with a team to design the research methodology, led analysis of the results, and wrote the full report. I also presented the framework at a public webinar alongside Revolt CSO, North America, Freya Williams, and Revolt CEO, North America, Kirsten Flanik.