Consumer
Boycotts
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“An attempt by one or more parties
to achieve certain objectives by
urging individual consumers to
refrain from making selected
purchases in the marketplace”
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For many years Irish peasants were
mistreated by their British landlords
Charles Cunningham Boycott
1880 Boycott evicted tenant farmers
Tenants convinced Boycott’s
employees to desert him
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“Boycotts are as American as apple pie.”
1765 Stamp Act led to boycotts of British
goods in Boston, New York, Philadelphia
• Act repealed a year later
German goods boycotted by American
Jewish community in 1930’s and 1940’s
Alabama bus boycott organized by Martin
Luther King was defining moment of civil
rights movement
Three characteristics of consumer
boycotts
1.
2.
Focus on individual consumers
rather than organizational entities
Attempts to use marketplace means
to secure what may or may not be
marketplace ends
 Lower prices/higher quality goods
 Environmental/other social goals
3.
Emphasis on urging consumers to
withdraw selectively from
participation in marketplace
Types of Boycotts

Commodity boycotts
vs.
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Brand-name or single-firm boycotts
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Complete boycott
vs.
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Partial boycott
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Negative boycott
vs.
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Positive boycott
• whitelist
• buycott
• girlcott
• procott
• anti-boycott
• reverse boycott
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Instrumental boycott
vs.
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Expressive boycott
• “Buy Nothing Day”
• TV Turnoff
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Non-surrogate boycotts
vs.
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Surrogate boycotts
• Travel boycotts
• Headquarters boycotts

Primary boycott
vs.
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Secondary boycott
Consumer Economic Boycotts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Failure to lower prices beyond term
of boycott
Lack of leadership
Prices more stable today
Staples being replaced by
convenience foods and meals away
from home
Dual incomes reduce impact of
price increases on quality of life
Other goals
1.
2.
3.
Environmental
Labor
Animal rights
 Animal testing/cosmetics & drugs
 Treatment of food animals
4.
Other social
• Health
• Community
5.
Political
Historically noteworthy boycotts:
1. Nestle
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provides information to mothers which
promotes artificial infant feeding and
discourages breastfeeding
donates free samples and supplies to
health facilities to encourage artificial
infant feeding
gives inducements to health workers for
promoting its products
does not provide clear warnings on labels
of benefits of breastfeeding and dangers
of artificial feeding
• In some cases labels are in a language that
mothers are unlikely to understand
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UNICEF: in areas with unsafe water,
bottle-fed baby 25 times more likely to die
from diarrhea than breastfed one
Expense of baby milks affects all family
members family, impoverishing those
already poor
In developing world formula is overdiluted to make it last longer
• can cause malnutrition
UNICEF: 1.5 million infants die annually
because they are not breastfed
2. Apartheid in South Africa
Sullivan Principles
 Prohibited GM from following
apartheid laws
 Required non-segregation in
company operations
 Required equal pay for equal work
regardless of race
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By 1986 172 of 280 American
companies in South Africa had signed
agreement
1987 Sullivan declared experiment a
failure and called for withdrawal from
South Africa
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Boycotts of companies continuing to
do business in South Africa
Universities and other institutions
pressured to divest shares of stock
in such companies
3. Grape boycott
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1964 United Farm Workers
Association (UFW) formed
1965 Filipino and Mexican-American
farm workers called a strike against
table grape farmers in Delano, CA
• Low wages
• Poor working/living conditions
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UFW president Cesar Chavez called
for national boycott of table grapes
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By 1969 sale of table grapes had
nearly vanished
US Defense Department had to step
in to help growers
increased shipment of table grapes
to soldiers in Vietnam by 2 million
pounds over previous year
Boycott ended in 1970 when first
union contracts were signed
Are boycotts effective?
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Survey of business leaders indicate they
consider it more effective than other
consumer techniques
• E.g., lobbying, letter writing campaigns, class
action suits
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Grape boycott succeeded
• As did subsequent 16-year effort to eliminate
pesticides harmful to worker health
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1984-2000
Divestment in South Africa succeeded
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Nestle boycott partially successful
Boycott of states did not result in
passage of Equal Rights Amendment
Other successful boycotts
Ongoing boycotts
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Ethical Consumer