Pepsi And Walmart Every Going through Calls For Boycotts On Twitter – Do Social Media Boycotts Really Matter?

Twitter trends Tuesday morning were the hashtags #BoycottPepsi and #BoycottWalmart

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The hashtags #BoycottPepsi and #BoycottWalmart were trending on Twitter Tuesday morning — and for very different reasons. Calls to boycott the world’s largest retailer came after Quebec announced that shoppers would have to go to their Quebec pharmacy without proof of vaccination. The soft drink maker was also named after a report listed it as a donor to the Texas Republican Party.

Social media has made it easier to call for boycotts, although their effectiveness is certainly in question. After Starbucks announced that 228,000 of its employees would not be requiring vaccination against Covid-19 this week, #BoycottStarbucks became a trending topic. However, it didn’t appear to have a significant impact on Starbucks.

Jason Mollica of American University’s School of Communication said, “It’s easy to get lost in the minutiae of social media.” People have a lot of grievances and share their grievances on social media. It happens with politics as well as with sports and entertainment. There were calls to boycott films because fans disliked certain casting decisions or the ending. “Boycotts are part of everyday noise.”

Boycotts: The Story

A boycott is a practice that existed long before it became popular. One of the most notable boycotts was that of American against British goods prior to the American Revolution.

But the term actually entered the English language during the Irish land wars in the 19th century. It was named after Captain Charles Boycott (an agent of an absentee landlord). The boycott attempted to evict tenants after a poor harvest in 1880, but was attacked by protesters and social ostracism. His business was not open to anyone, nor would they do business with him. Even postmen could not deliver the mail. In order to harvest his crops, he had to hire workers from other counties. However, all of this took place. Long before the social media era, the story went “viral” — and was picked up by distant newspapers like the New York Tribune. This was the first time organized isolation was called a “boycott”.

In the decade and a half following the United States’ Soviet boycott of the 1984 Moscow Summer Olympics, as well as the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, there were many notable boycotts. Calls for investment in apartheid South Africa also resonated.

#boycotts to lose their teeth

Although social media makes it much easier to organize boycotts of certain organizations, they can also be very counterproductive as these calls are made so often.

Mollica explained that when people use social media to urge others to stop buying Starbucks or Pepsi from Walmart, it can spark a movement. But it’s impossible to quantify whether this makes a difference if people don’t stop buying these products. We see that while these hashtags are going viral, there isn’t much to them.

There’s just too much noise on social media. The next trend is quickly adopting boycott hashtags, which are getting thousands upon thousands of retweets.

Mollica acknowledged that these calls can be lost. There are many instances where the use of social media has made boycotts work.

Last April, one of the most prominent protests took place on social media. They were not used to promote the boycott but as victims of public outrage. In protest at the inaction on online abuse, UK athletes, sports teams and other leading organizations said they would boycott Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for three days.

Mollica added: “Having so many clubs and athletes and high profile brands taking part makes a big difference.”

This also explains why disorganized and constant efforts progress so quickly.

Mollica explained that “the latest #BoycottPepsi isn’t going to move it too much”. It won’t work if the hashtags don’t belong in a larger movement.