It has become status quo for U.S. corporations to announce their support for one side of a divisive social issue, regardless of whether this issue relates to their products or not. From Nabisco’s pro-gay Oreo ad in 2012 to Chick-Fil-A’s anti-gay reputation to the dozens of topically political Super Bowl ads, there is a growing trend where corporations co-opt and exploit contemporary issues in order to sell a brand of social justice alongside their product. The profitability of this approach is self-evident. Chick-Fil-A, for example, saw record sales when homophobes and fundamentalist Christians began supporting their anti-gay business practices. While it is ridiculous to express a distaste for homosexuality by buying waffle fries, the broader oversight is attributing any political leanings to corporations in the first place.

Although legally considered to be people, corporations cannot have opinions — only strategies. When a corporation like Nabisco realizes that their customer base is primarily in the Northeast and is likely to support the hot-button issue of gay marriage, it sees an opportunity to use politics to market cream cookies. Suddenly, buying a pack of Oreos is no longer just buying a pack of Oreos; it is a bold political statement that supports a righteous corporation. Furthermore, Nabisco benefits from the free press it gets by publicly supporting gay rights. Liberals will praise them, conservatives will shame them and Nabisco makes boatloads of cash.

Corporate marketing teams’ attempts to cash in on social issues underscore the deceitful nature of advertising. Obviously, not all organizations are as committed to gender pay parity as Audi is — as proudly proclaimed in the automobile manufacturer’s cringeworthy Super Bowl ad. Corporations are diffuse, hulking institutions comprised of tens of thousands of people. Audi alone is made up of over 50,000 employees. To say that Audi as a whole is committed to gender parity is to say that everyone who goes to NYU owns a red hat. It is nearly impossible to prove, irrelevant to what they are supposed to be doing and a generalization that precludes the individual identity of a massive amount of people.

To be clear, there are certainly social justice issues that deserve input from certain corporations. Instead of going out of their way to bait supporters of gender parity, Audi might be better off making statements on climate change given their implication in the Volkswagen emissions scandal last year. It is revolting that these corporations are so shamelessly willing to exploit people’s convictions for their bottom line, and more revolting still that so many people are willing to fall for it.

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Email Henry Cohen at [email protected].