Brands take a stand

Firms are moving out of their comfort zone to address sensitive issues

The day after billionaire-turned-politician Donald Trump was sworn in as the president of the United States, a Bengaluru-based start-up Nestaway chose to express its feelings in an interesting way. Front-page ads in leading dailies dwelt on the need to ‘Trump’ biases, partisanship, parochialism, inequalities, racism and sexism among other issues. The message was blunt: A ‘white house’ should never discriminate, drawing the attention of the reader to do away with injustice both at home and outside of it.

For a start-up operating in the online marketplace for shared home rentals, the link between the White House, whose current occupant is