Like do they actually, reliably effect change in the way the activists intend?
Have they worked against Israel? Did they work against Apartheid South Africa? Could they work against Trump’s America?
My hunch is that they don’t, really, but can be a useful promotional tool for other issues. Like don’t buy American is a simple message. If people will listen to that, they may listen to reasons why, which maybe could build a movement.
But on the whole I am very sceptical, and would be interested in any reasons for or against boycotts.
When enough people care collectively yeah. Rare.
Canadians vs Heinz Ketchup in the past and I think that one has stuck around somewhat to present day.
Canadians again vs American booze in response to 51st state threats. Yesterday’s headlines were about a continued drop in sales, down 85% this year so far.
Travel is down too. Not enough in my opinion, but enough that a few states are whining about it including Newsom in California. Fuck the USA.
Usually no though.
Disney allegedly lost 1.7 million customers after suspending Jimmy Kimmel. He was very quickly reinstated.
It’s not that boycotts don’t work, it’s more that they require a critical mass to work and that can be hard to achieve.
edit: Holy shit disney just killed hulu.
What people boycott matters. So many products/services are effectively monopolized that only things people are willing to actually go without can effectively be boycotted.
It worked with Jimmy Kimmel because there’s neither a substitute entertainer that will satisfy cancelers nor is there an alternate disney owned streaming service -which didn’t remove kimmel- they can funnel said canceler’s to.
https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/the-6-companies-that-own-almost-all-media-infographic/
Boycotts just brought back * Jimmy Kimmel like 2 weeks ago.
BDS worked on South Africa, but it was a pariah state at the national level in most of the world. You have to get your taxes to stop going to Israel for that to work tbh.
Doesn’t mean I don’t participate. What little we can do does a little, and is worth doing.
No, only thing I’ve found that works is affecting the public image. Public image is critical because once the public opinion changes, the issue gets so much pressure building up. It’s an affect of digital age. It’s really underutilized. Boycott doesn’t work because these entities have more than one way to handle that. What they haven’t figured out is bad PR in a digital world.
This is the Achilles heel of so many of these people. They’re rich, powerful, can withstand almost anything. But the one thing they can’t always have is control over public opinion and that kills so many of them. But we seem to ignore how effective it is.
