Social media calls for boycotts are relatively common. While many calls are not especially impactful few brand managers want to be facing a bunch of people shouting about boycotting their brand. Like a lot of social media engagements call for boycott can get pretty intense. Interestingly, and I guess this is predictable from the way social media works, when some call for boycotts others oppose the calls.
What Is A Boycott?
A boycott is withdrawing from dealing with someone/something that is behaving unacceptably. So, when Nike supported Colin Kaepernick in his campaign against racism, some who disagreed with him/his methods pledged to stop buying Nike. Some even burned their shoes. (I know this isn’t the key point but as a person who has asthma that must has created unpleasant smoke. Hope they were okay, especially as they probably got less exercise too after their shoes went up in smoke).
Boycott comes from the name of an English Land Agent who threatened to evict people from the estate he managed in Mayo, Ireland. The local community refused to deal with him/sell him anything, hence the term boycott came into use. There was a 1946 movie made about the incident, “Captain Boycott”. I have just found out that key scenes were shot in Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland — where my mum lives. I don’t think of Mullingar as movie country, but it was eighty years ago.
Investigating Social Media Calls For Boycotts
In 2022, Vassilis Dalakas and colleagues looked at how people called for, and opposed calls for, boycotts on social media. The team adopted a qualitative approach. They analyzed a selection of tweets soon after companies did things that provoked a backlash. They then categorized the tweets with fun names, e.g., The Basher, The Eye Roller, and The Morally Superior.
Boycotts are more heightened than just disapproval of what the company did. Those calling for the boycotts varied between those who simply stated what they were doing through to impassioned outrage and threats. They give examples and some of the language is a bit much.
They also note that some defend the brands, they are anti-boycotters. These may be buycotters — people actively purchasing to support the brand because of its position. Again, these range from the fairly staid, through mockery of boycotters, to anger about the boycott call. You can always be sure to find anger on social media and this was even before Elon Musk took over. (Spoiler he hasn’t made things better).
…political consumerism occurs with differing motivations and varying levels of emotion, that brand defenders may lessen boycott effectiveness and that threats to boycott may not always translate to actual boycotts.
Everyone Does It
The good news is that boycotting and anti-boycotting is a bi-partisan pursuit.
Dalakas, 2022, page 1
The intensity of one’s ideology is a stronger predictor of boycotting/buycotting behavior than the direction of the ideology.
Dalakas, 2022, page 14
How much people follow up on their threats to boycott is an open question. What people tweet isn’t who they are. They can sound extreme online and do nothing much in their normal lives. Still, brands should usually check in to see how many bashers they have. Some boycotts do make an impact. I wonder if the Nike shoe-burners will be heroes of a movie in a couple of generations? I guess it depends if Amazon is seeking to bribe anyone.
For more on boycotts see Social Change Will Always Face Setbacks, Corporate Political Advocacy and Stakeholder Management As A Threat.
Read: Vassilis Dalakas, Joanna Phillips Melancon, and Izabela Szczytynski. “Brands in the eye of the storm: navigating political consumerism and boycott calls on social media.” Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 26, no. 1 (2023): 1-18.
