Earlier this week Pepsi and brewery company Diageo withdrew their sponsorship of the UK’s 2026 Wireless Festival after it was announced that Kanye West (or Ye) would headline the three-day event. 

Shortly after, the festival itself was cancelled when the UK government reportedly refused Ye permission to enter the country. 

In a statement, Wireless Festival acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, stating that “antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent,” while also noting that stakeholders had been consulted before the booking was made. 

On digging a bit deeper, this feels like it could be the final nail in the coffin for Kanye. 

In recent years West has purportedly made a series of widely condemned antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi comments, remarks that have sparked a global backlash and cost him numerous sponsorship deals.

Adidas terminated its highly profitable partnership with Kanye West in October 2022 following a series of antisemitic comments. The decision ended the “Yeezy” collaboration, resulting in major financial losses for both parties, leaving Adidas with £840m in unsold stock. 

Before that, Kanye had already parted ways with a long list of mainstream brands and creative influencers including Gap, Balenciaga, TK Maxx and Vogue, with real financial repercussions as his net worth, according to Forbes, plummeted from nearly $2 billion to roughly $400 million. 

These repercussions feel like real progress. 

Here are powerful brands, organisations driven by profit, taking a stand and walking away when they know they’ll lose significant revenue.  

Choosing, what looks like principle over profit. In a world where consumerism so often wins, this looked like accountability in action. 

But the more I thought about it, the more complicated it felt. 

I don’t think there’s a question mark around calling out harmful behaviour, and clearly in the case of Kanye the Wireless Festival have got this spot on, but is there a tipping point where momentum and a ground swell on uninformed opinion, rumour and heresy take over? 

This inevitably gets amplified by social media, where nuance and facts are easily lost and forgiveness rarely gains traction. What begins as justified criticism can evolve into something more rigid, less forgiving and more of a societal sentencing, where outcomes are decided quickly and reputations irreparable. 

In the words of Will Rogers, “It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute.” 

And then there’s the issue of power. 

It appears there remains an imbalance when it comes to the very powerful, where status and social standing create a shield and the same standards don’t seem to apply, accountability isn’t always sought and behaviours remain unquestioned. 

So, while it feels like society is becoming more morally conscious, which is a welcomed development, in reality there remain some grey pockets where integrity is overlooked. 

Yes, we are moving in the right direction. There is greater awareness, less tolerance for discrimination, and more willingness to speak out. But accountability is still selective. It still appears to depend on power. 

Until that imbalance is fully addressed, I don’t think we can say we’ve fully “got this right.”