I have a major confession to make - I drank a bottle of Coke a few days ago. The guilt has been killing me.
You can't boycott everything, so about seven years ago I decided I'd limit myself to two things. Coke because of things like this, this and this - and MacDonalds as the most public face of US corporate hegmony.
My Coke boycott got off to a slow start because I hadn't realised that Coke own everything. You go to a fridge in a shop and its ALL Coke products because they own the fridge as well. It can get pretty difficult sometimes.
I have a friend that was telling me about his personal boycott of Sainsburys over some obscure issue to do with France. He then said "Of course it's quite easy to boycott them because Tescos is nearer."
Well I'm sorry that's not a boycott that's shopping as usual. Unlike him my boycott hurts. I like Coke. I like that stupid gherkin in your burger. I miss them, even now.
Anyway - I thought I'd take this opportunity to reassess who I should be boycotting, if anyone. The MacDonalds boycott seems particularly tokenistic frankly, so maybe its time to move on, even after all these years.
I'm open to suggestions as to who I should boycott and why (feel free to include links). Or if you think I should boycott everything, or nothing, I'm open to persuasion too.
In the best modern tradition of reality shows I will then put the results to a public vote and ruthlessly obey the outcome.
You can't boycott everything, so about seven years ago I decided I'd limit myself to two things. Coke because of things like this, this and this - and MacDonalds as the most public face of US corporate hegmony.My Coke boycott got off to a slow start because I hadn't realised that Coke own everything. You go to a fridge in a shop and its ALL Coke products because they own the fridge as well. It can get pretty difficult sometimes.
I have a friend that was telling me about his personal boycott of Sainsburys over some obscure issue to do with France. He then said "Of course it's quite easy to boycott them because Tescos is nearer."
Well I'm sorry that's not a boycott that's shopping as usual. Unlike him my boycott hurts. I like Coke. I like that stupid gherkin in your burger. I miss them, even now.
Anyway - I thought I'd take this opportunity to reassess who I should be boycotting, if anyone. The MacDonalds boycott seems particularly tokenistic frankly, so maybe its time to move on, even after all these years.
I'm open to suggestions as to who I should boycott and why (feel free to include links). Or if you think I should boycott everything, or nothing, I'm open to persuasion too.In the best modern tradition of reality shows I will then put the results to a public vote and ruthlessly obey the outcome.
Additional link: Boycott Israeli Goods
more links for this list? Let me know by email
Annie Leonard and co. (
Adrienne Mayor (
Ed Howker and Shiv Malik
Floella Benjamin (
Mark Watson (
Tim Jackson (
David Wilson (
Clive Lord (
Nickie Roberts
7 comments:
I find it easier to boycott things I don't like anyway,
Fuck it! I just realised I should have called this post Mea Gulpa - bugger, too late now
What about boycotting blogs :-)
I vote Baby Milk Action: I've boycotted Nestlé for a long time and it's a very easy decision to defend.
SB: Boycott blogs - How dare you!
John: what do nestle own? what would I be letting myself in for by boycotting them - would I suddenyl find I couldn't use milk or something?
And also what about Starbucks and the like - now I love my coffee... but should I take my business elsewhere?
I can't give up Dr Pepper, which is part of the coke empire...
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