[ctools_dropdown] token broken in views footer/no results fields

I have a view for editing fields in an entity -- a CRM-Core contact, including a relation to another entity -- another CRM-Core contact. The choices when starting from Contact1 are to: add a new Contact2, edit an existing Contact2, delete an existing relationship between Contact1 and Contact2, and add a new relationship between Contact1 and Contact2.

If a relationship already exists between Contact1 and Contact2, I can use [ctools_dropdown] to present all of these options. But if there is no relationship, I want to present the links to add/edit contacts and create a relationship. But if no relationship exists, I need to put the token in a global text field in the footer or "no results" area to make the [ctools_dropdown] visible. But if I do either of those things all I see is "[ctools_dropdown]". The token is not converte into the field. I have checked the box to use tokens in the text area.

Any ideas how to fix this?