Why consumer boycotts trump social media outrage
MOBILISING many people is always more difficult than venting on social media or sending a few people to make trouble at a mall. But it is also likely to produce deeper change, which makes it interesting that South Africans who say they want change prefer the easy options.
When retail store Clicks allowed on its website an advertisement that denigrated black people, women in particular, people angered by this were in effect told they had two options. They could, as Wits University vice-chancellor Adam Habib, recommended: hope that the Human Rights Commission would look into Clicks’ conduct. Or they could cheer on the EFF as its members gathered outside the company’s stores, forcing
