Do Boycotts Work?

While completing my Room for Debate, I came across the topic of whether or not Boycotts are efficient. I chose this debate because it is relevant to the protests occurring right now due to the injustice toward the Black community. Boycotts are when the consumers decide to abstain from using certain company products, and occur when a company is making bad decisions and/or when it negatively affects consumers. Multiple companies have been boycotted including Starbucks, Uber, FaceBook, Nestle, SodaStream, and many others. Both debaters, Americus Reed, and Judith Samuelson agreed that it’s difficult to distinguish if a boycott is successful or not. They each had different views on what a successful boycott looks like. I personally feel boycotts are a great way to fight against a company in a peaceful way. Boycotts inform people of companies’ real intentions, but they usually don’t last long. In our society things appear and disappear in the matter of seconds which makes it extremely hard for people to continue fighting for what’s right.

Americus Reed says that boycotts being successful depends on what success means to you, which I completely agree with. If the goal of the boycotts is to inform consumers of the issues of the company, then boycotts are extremely successful. However, if the goal is to completely drop their sales and “cancel” them, then it won’t work. Although the issue may be concerning and horrible, no matter what, people will forget about it. Do you think boycotts are successful? What boycotts have stood out to you? Do you think the succession of boycotts relies on social media?