What makes a boycott effective?

Boycotts can work. The United Farm Workers’ grape boycott was an industry-wise boycott against California grapes that forced growers to negotiate in good-faith with farmworkers. It worked after months of carefully planned organizing: groups across the country, national tour by farmworkers, pickets outside grocery stores, and more.

Boycotts in the social media era have often struggled. People often skip the organizing and just launch it (hence this website — a way to get informed and tell organizers you’re participating). To work, they require structure and ways to measure pressure. For example, the infamous Bud Light boycott was highly successful (21% loss in sales). The recently launched TeslaTakeDown boycott has already resulted in a 1.1% worldwide sales slump.

Boycotts traditionally require a lot of coordination to make them work. They require:

• a target (who is supposed to change behavior)
• a demand (so the target knows what they have to do to get the boycott to stop)
• boycotters (a lot of people who used to be customers refusing to be customers anymore)
• leadership/negotiation committee (people who can show the target they’re hurting their bottomline and negotiate over demands)
• a way to communicate with the boycotters (a structure and massive social reach!).

Real talk: most boycotts launched since Trump took office do not have these. Don’t fret and don’t despair! Boycotts take some time to organize well.

By signing up with us — without any commitment — we’ll let you know when we see effective boycotts being run!