It’s 11 November, and instead of shutting the fuck up for a day, Cummins drops another “Life at the Company” spectacle. This time it’s the full bingo card: veteran, woman, Black, remote worker, diversity role, integrity quote, and volunteer-hours garnish. Aisha M. – talented, decorated, and now weaponised as a brand. Every Remembrance Day they do this. Wrap the flag around the logo and call it tribute. It’s not remembrance. It’s repulsive theatre – the kind that sells engines.
Weaponising Identity
Here’s the trick. Pick someone unimpeachable – a Black woman veteran – and make her the poster child. That way, anyone who dares to question the timing or the motive can be painted as heartless. It’s not inclusion; it’s insulation. Aisha’s real life becomes body armour for a company that’s spent the year choking out diesel fumes and dividends. She served her country. Cummins uses her to serve spin.
The Remembrance Grift
Silence at eleven, self-promotion at twelve. A day meant for reflection twisted into another marketing funnel. There’s no shame in this machine – just an endless hum of engines and HR adjectives. You can almost hear the PR team high-fiving in Columbus, giddy that they’ve hit every demographic in one shot.
Lest we forget, this isn’t the first time Cummins has mined Remembrance for optics. Years ago they sacked ex-soldier Simon Sunderland upon return from Afghanistan – detailed previously by TCAP – a man later reinstated by tribunal. Now it’s all poppies and hashtags about honour. The hypocrisy writes itself – they talk about “supporting veterans” while their history proves otherwise. Different year, same rot. Same abhorrent timing.
Aisha Deserves Better
Let’s be clear – Aisha’s story is powerful. She built a career on service, discipline and purpose. But on this day, her story isn’t hers anymore; it’s theirs. She’s been folded into the propaganda brochure. You can’t help but wonder if she knows how cynically she’s being used – as a human shield, a moral alibi, a poster for “values” that vanish the moment a camera’s off.
Integrity? Fuck Off, Mate
“Integrity is doing what you say you will do”. That’s the quote. From a company that’s lied to regulators, cooked engines, and still powers half the data centres belching out emissions. If this is integrity, then words have officially died of exhaustion.
The Pattern Never Breaks
It’s always the same: PR drops timed to holidays, virtues borrowed from real people, and a total absence of self-awareness. Diesel still pays the bills, Accelera still bleeds money, and their idea of progress is to rename the same combustion and call it HELM. Cummins doesn’t honour service – it consumes it. Every year. Every November.
The Verdict
This isn’t remembrance. It’s brand necromancy – using the dead to sell the living a lie. Aisha’s name deserves better. The day deserves better. And if Cummins wants to talk about honour, maybe start by shutting the fuck up for one day and letting silence mean something again.
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project