Without generous financial support of six companies (AT&T, Eli Lily, Walmart, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, and Aetna), the politicians who are enacting bans on legal, safe abortion would not have attained office; these companies don't fund these politicians because they want women to die; they fund them because they're indifferent to the death of women, provided that they get tax breaks and other favorable treatment — the garden variety get the turkeys to vote for Christmas strategy that exchanges unlimited oligarchy for performative acts of grotesque cruelty against brown people, sexual minorities and (of course) women.
Thanks to monopolism (another legislative favor that was bought at fire-sale prices by the ultra-rich), it may be impossible to boycott these companies.
But to the extent that you would like to avoid funding the death of desperate women, AA Newton presents a guide to maximizing the efficacy of your boycott against these companies.
If you’re not able to stop buying from these corporations—or you’re just feeling a little extra vindictive—focusing on their reputation rather than their bottom line could be more effective. According to Brayden King, a professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg school, boycotts tend to work best when they’re able to bring sustained mass media coverage to an issue. In a 2017 interview with Northwestern’s Institute of Policy Research, he said that “the no. 1 predictor of what makes a boycott effective is how much media attention it creates, not how many people sign onto a petition or how many consumers it mobilizes.” The longer a corporation spends in the headlines, the more its stock will drops—and the more likely it is to change the behavior that caused it.
If your goal is to hit Coca-Cola in the bottom line, then you need to do everything in your power to keep it in the news as much as possible. One way to do that is by joining a sustained call-out campaign on social media, which many people have already done. However, none of the companies named in the Popular Information post have made a statement about their donations or their position on the bill.
How to Divest From the Corporations Funding Abortion Bans [A.A. Newton/Lifehacker
