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I’ve become somewhat fascinated by consumer activism and think there’s a missing opportunity to build something like change.org specifically to boycott specific

I’ve become somewhat fascinated by consumer activism and think there’s a missing opportunity to build something like change.org specifically to boycott specific companies, products, etc to pressure change. Edit: should throw in I actually submitted this idea for Startup School and in the early MVP ideation/building phase.

fifnir 7y ago
One of the projects i've daydreamed about is an app where you sign up for issues that you care about like water privitization or palm oil etc, and then you scan a barcode and get a report of whether the product is connected to any of those problems. You will then (hopefully) not buy the product and maybe hit a button in the app saying that you chose not to buy it. Every month, the app collects the data from its users and produces a report: "Dear Nestle, this month you lost $X of revenue on account of people boycotting you because of this or that." I think it's important to send some kind of negative feedback to companies.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Similar to https://www.buycott.com/ https://www.buycott.com/?
  - dawhizkid 7y ago
    Yeah something like this, though looks like a dead project (no activity in a year)
  - fifnir 7y ago
    Ow wow ! pretty much exactly that!
- c22 7y ago
  I love this idea. I've noticed that as corps get larger and operate more and more brands under fewer umbrellas boycotts are becoming a lot less effective. Most efforts probably don't even land on the radar, let alone have a noticeable impact on the bottom line. Finding ways to deliver more consumer feedback up the chain that aren't mediated by the company's own processes seems essential going forward.
- jkestner 7y ago
  A friend did something like this a while ago (thesis + code) called Redink: https://github.com/evlrbot/Red-Ink https://github.com/evlrbot/Red-Ink Maybe there are some ideas in there for you. I really wished it got completed.
ljlolel 7y ago
I'm starting this, we should chat
lazyguy 7y ago
It's a no-brainer that customers have all the power. If there are no customers there is no business. It doesn't matter how many 'angel investors' you have in a business or other nonsense like that. If producers try to jack up prices and nobody feels like paying them then it's the producers that go bankrupt, not the customers. Similarly if producers piss of their customers so they leave then it's the producers that lose jobs, not the customers. This is the democratizing effect of capitalism. Everybody works for a living and everybody is somebody's customer. In a total capitalist society you must serve to be able to eat and when you eat must be served. Of course the world is not a perfect place and there are a multitude of ways that this power dynamic gets turned on it's head. One of the ways is people being convinced that they are passive "consumers" who believe they are helpless to 'capitalists' and apathetically volunteer themselves to be victims... Like people who go out and put 600 dollars on their credit cards on a new smart phone only to complain and moan on that smart phone on how they are being spied on and so on and so forth... while all the while paying interest to the bank for joy of financing their own privacy violation.
pingpongchef 7y ago
I'm interested in how you can combat bias in the product. Today we're plagued with the problem that our news sources are frequently working from a narrative, which I presume your product would source information from.

fifnir 7y ago

One of the projects i've daydreamed about is an app where you sign up for issues that you care about like water privitization or palm oil etc, and then you scan a barcode and get a report of whether the product is connected to any of those problems. You will then (hopefully) not buy the product and maybe hit a button in the app saying that you chose not to buy it. Every month, the app collects the data from its users and produces a report: "Dear Nestle, this month you lost $X of revenue on account of people boycotting you because of this or that." I think it's important to send some kind of negative feedback to companies.

toomuchtodo 7y ago
Similar to https://www.buycott.com/ https://www.buycott.com/?
- dawhizkid 7y ago
  Yeah something like this, though looks like a dead project (no activity in a year)
- fifnir 7y ago
  Ow wow ! pretty much exactly that!
c22 7y ago
I love this idea. I've noticed that as corps get larger and operate more and more brands under fewer umbrellas boycotts are becoming a lot less effective. Most efforts probably don't even land on the radar, let alone have a noticeable impact on the bottom line. Finding ways to deliver more consumer feedback up the chain that aren't mediated by the company's own processes seems essential going forward.
jkestner 7y ago
A friend did something like this a while ago (thesis + code) called Redink: https://github.com/evlrbot/Red-Ink https://github.com/evlrbot/Red-Ink Maybe there are some ideas in there for you. I really wished it got completed.

ljlolel 7y ago

I'm starting this, we should chat

lazyguy 7y ago

It's a no-brainer that customers have all the power. If there are no customers there is no business. It doesn't matter how many 'angel investors' you have in a business or other nonsense like that. If producers try to jack up prices and nobody feels like paying them then it's the producers that go bankrupt, not the customers. Similarly if producers piss of their customers so they leave then it's the producers that lose jobs, not the customers. This is the democratizing effect of capitalism. Everybody works for a living and everybody is somebody's customer. In a total capitalist society you must serve to be able to eat and when you eat must be served. Of course the world is not a perfect place and there are a multitude of ways that this power dynamic gets turned on it's head. One of the ways is people being convinced that they are passive "consumers" who believe they are helpless to 'capitalists' and apathetically volunteer themselves to be victims... Like people who go out and put 600 dollars on their credit cards on a new smart phone only to complain and moan on that smart phone on how they are being spied on and so on and so forth... while all the while paying interest to the bank for joy of financing their own privacy violation.

pingpongchef 7y ago

I'm interested in how you can combat bias in the product. Today we're plagued with the problem that our news sources are frequently working from a narrative, which I presume your product would source information from.