This Friday, millions of people will be shopping. And millions of people won’t.

Every year, it seems more “conscious consumers” opt out of Black Friday and into the Small Business Saturday/Shop Local movement, started by American Express in barely post-recession 2010 to keep Main Street alive. Almost a decade later, the movement has proven its value: a recent survey found that among consumers who plan to shop on Small Business Saturday, 96% said the event “inspires them to go to small, independently owned retailers or restaurants that they have not been to before or would not have otherwise tried.”

We’ve talked a lot about brands and what they stand for this month, and we keep coming back to one important point: authenticity. 

After the U.S. Women’s National Team won the 2019 World Cup, Nike did this:

If you’ve ever been a kid with a dream (or, ahem, a curly-haired little soccer player with a poster of Michelle Akers on her wall), that spot is a tearjerker. We were all riding high after that win—despite the controversy over goals scored, celebration moves, and the ongoing fight for pay equality—no brand more so than Nike, the reigning champ of provocative sports advertising.