Parkland shooting survivors have mastered a new strategy to steer political discourse - and it's shaping countless aspects of Americans' lives
- Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg's campaign against Laura Ingraham epitomizes a new kind of boycott.
- Within 24 hours of Hogg's call for a boycott of Ingraham's advertisers, a number of companies announced plans to pull their commercials from the Fox News program.
- American political discourse is being shaped by fast-moving and social media-driven boycotts that are willing to target any company.
The nature of boycotts in America is shifting.
This week, David Hogg, a survivor of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, launched a boycott campaign of Laura Ingraham's Fox News show. Ingraham had tweeted about Hogg being rejected from colleges he applied to, saying he whined about the rejections.
In response to Ingraham's tweet, Hogg tweeted that people should boycott her advertisers and included a list of companies that advertise on the program.
Within 24 hours, four advertisers had pulled out of Ingraham's show. On Thursday afternoon, the host apologized to Hogg on Twitter. By Friday, a dozen companies had announced plans to stop running ads on Ingraham's show in the future.
The incident epitomizes a new type of boycott that's dominating American politics: fast-moving, social-media driven, and all-encompassing in its targets. In 2018, companies can be bombarded with boycott threats at a moment's notice, simply because they advertise on a certain TV show.
Boycotting in the Trump era
The new, social media-driven boycott method is closely linked to President Donald Trump's rise to political power.
The longest-standing boycott power player is, without question, #GrabYourWallet. Shannon Coulter, a brand and digital strategist, started the hashtag in October 2016 to encourage people seeking a way to take concrete action against Donald Trump to boycott companies - large and small - that do business with his family.
Today, Grab Your Wallet's list of brands to boycott includes 70 retailers, nonprofits, and even a movie produced by Harvey Weinstein. The movement helped shape the norms of both boycotts' social media strategy (Coulter has played a key role in boosting other boycotts) and the breadth of companies involved (Trident is still on the #GrabYourWallet list, albeit "deprioritized," for advertising on "Celebrity Apprentice," a show that is not currently on the air).
While #GrabYourWallet has been the most sustained effort, the last year has seen countless smaller-scale boycotts from the right and left. In these instances, the boycott will typically dominate social media for a day or two, until someone backs down or enthusiasm peters out.
Here's an abbreviated list of the social-media-focused boycotts that surged, then were swept away in the news cycle, over the last year:
- In February 2017, conservative Starbucks customers threatened to boycott after the company's CEO took a stand against Trump's executive order barring immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the US.
- Trump supporters promised to boycott Nordstrom after the retailer stopped selling Ivanka Trump's brand in February, citing disappointing sales.
- Keurig cut advertising on Sean Hannity's show after Hannity interviewed Roy Moore in November. Progressives boycotted after the interview, and conservatives boycotted (and smashed Keurigs) after the brand cut ads.
- Papa John's founder and CEO, John Schnatter, slammed NFL leadership in November over the ongoing controversy over national-anthem protests, inspiring boycott threats from the left.
- Both the right and the left threatened to boycott Amazon at various points in time, for opposing reasons.
Why boycotts matter
These boycotts don't usually take up mainstream attention for long. And, many of the largest companies that are targeted (such as Amazon) simply ignore them and don't see any major sales issues.
But despite that, social-media boycotts have provided people a crucial way to advocate for their cause and shape political conversations.
"Boycotts are primarily about raising political consciousness - about drawing people's attention to something," Lawrence Glickman, a Cornell history professor, told Business Insider last year.
The teenagers who survived the Parkland, Florida shooting have figured out how to capture a news cycle and keep people engaged in making long-term political change. A huge part of that has been through social media. And, one of their tools in shaping the conversation is through boycott campaigns.
The most recent boycott - prior to the Hogg-versus-Ingraham incident - took place soon after the Parkland shooting. As people began to pressure companies that offer special deals to NRA members to cut ties with the group, more than a dozen- including Hertz, United, and Delta - have recently done so.
More than hurting companies, both the right and the left now use boycotts as a way to garner attention to a cause and shape the political narrative. And, unsurprisingly, the teen activists from Parkland, Florida are leading the charge.