Boycotts can be one of the most effective tools for activists seeking PR leverage on behalf of their causes. But not every boycott is successful. Several current boycott
campaigns have been marred by inadequate PR strategizing and problems with the boycott organizers. Consider the recent PR challenges facing some current boycott efforts:
| Boycott Organizer & Target | The PR Problem |
|---|---|
| The American Family Association's boycott of Citgo Petroleum Corp. in protest of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's vituperative criticism
of the Bush Administration. Citgo is the U.S. refining and marketing branch of Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company. |
The right-wing AFA is an old hand at arranging boycotts, and it may have overplayed its hand with yet another call to shun certain companies.
Plus, most Americans are either unaware of the Chavez-Bush feud or don't particularly care. Plus, public animosity against the oil industry as a whole makes a singling-out of one company very unlikely. |
| Curvaceous TV star Pamela Anderson, a frequent spokesperson on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is urging her fans to
boycott this year's Kentucky Derby on May 6 because it is sponsored by the parent company of Kentucky Fried Chicken, which Anderson alleges engages in animal cruelty to its feathered product line. |
Hollywood royalty have long been PR reliables for calling attention to causes, if only because the media wants to get a picture of the stars.
But there are more than a few problems in this case. The combination of equines and poultries makes this a mixed-up menagerie (you punish Kentucky Fried Chicken by not going to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby?), and the effect is obviously diluted by the simple fact most people will not be watching the event at the racetrack. The camera-ready Anderson doesn't help - she appears to be doing a better job promoting herself instead of her cause. |
| Our Lady of Good Counsel in Marysville, PA, is urging Roman Catholics across America to boycott the New York Times for perceived anti-
Catholic bias. The church notes how the Times ran a photo of Chris Ofili's controversial painting "Holy Virgin Mary" in its February 8 edition but would not reprint the now- infamous Danish cartoons lampooning Islam's Prophet Muhammad. |
Not every grassroots campaign works, and the little church is a slingshot-missing David against the Goliath of West 43rd Street. The absence of
support from the church hierarchy does not help give strength to this campaign, and the church's PR efforts have been limited to a press release on the Catholic PR Wire. This boycott effort is as small and thin as a communion wafer. |
| The environmental group Friends of Animals is calling on ecologically-minded travelers not to put Alaska on their future travel schedules.
The reason: Alaska's state program of wolf control, which involves state rangers flying in helicopters and shooting of wolves. The program took effect in 2003 following complaints by some Alaska residents that wolves were responsible for the deaths of too many moose and caribou. The Alaska Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge by Friends of Animals to stop the wolf hunt. |
Timing is a bit of a problem - few people will put Alaska on their winter holiday wish-list. Furthermore, the relative geographic isolation of the
state and its lack of a major media presence has made this a difficult story to cover. If that's not enough, wolves as a species never had the best PR (even though much of the damage attributed to them has been the stuff of legend rather than fact). For Friends of Animals, there is also the absence of strength in PR numbers: No other animal rights group is joining them with their boycott call. |
| Talk show host Bill O'Reilly asked his American audience to boycott all Canadian-made products until the Canadian government expels all U.S.
soldiers who deserted their Iraqi assignments and sought asylum up north. |
O'Reilly's perpetually irritated shoot-from-the-lip style always creates provocation, but too much provocation has a drawback: If someone is
constantly making wild or controversial statements, it becomes perceived as shtick and eventually gets tuned out. |