Why do religious groups protest things? don't they know there are enough people out there who will go just because they say not to?
Remember the last temptation of Christ? it was not a very good movie. it was long, and boring. it would have come and gone within two weeks, except some religious organization organized a boycott and it got a bajillion free dollars of advertising. At the time I ran a movie theatre, and my assistant manager who was extremely atheist, got a bunch of his friends together to go see the film. We were in a town where it didn't even show and he would never have known about it were it not for the boycott. But once they found out about it, they drove two towns over to see it. Boycott boycott boycott.
Never works.
Another famous boycott I remember was how Gay people boycotted Coors forever. You know Coors went out of business during the 25 year long boycott. Oh, wait, they increased sales. I always get those two mixed up.
Now it's McDonalds. Boycott them because they are unhealthy. Boycott them because they treat their employees like a commodity. Boycott them because they wouldn't let you use the restroom once in 1985 when you were just passing through. But don't boycott them for supporting civil rights. Now I'm obligated to stop there and have a quarter pounder with cheese on my way home tonight.
And that's just what I'm gonna do.
2 Comments
Don't forget the boycott of Disney, too! The offense? Gay Day at Disneyland.
I agree that boycotts don't work. There are far more people today than there were 30 years ago. Very diverse, too. Plus, we've had decades of apathy. So, no matter how "bad" a corporation is, there is not enough people to make a boycott work.
Not only are the people more diverse these days, so are the companies. Seems that every company is a subsidiary of some other company. How can you hurt one economically (through a boycott) when you don't even know if it's going to affect their bottom line? For example, GE (General Electric) used to mean kitchen appliances to me. But they own NBC, Telemundo, and a whole lot more.
None of it will matter once the comet hits the Earth.
Boycott McDonalds??? Are you mad?? I have small children to feed!!!!
If I personally never saw another fry, it would be too soon, three kids worth of McNuggets is enough to put any adult off their Mickydfeed.
Sigh…I thought Happy Meals were in the bill of rights, or something, at least that's what the under 12 audience believes.
More to the point, whoever went to a fast food burger joint for healthy meals??
That's like 'low carb' cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory…you're joking, right?