Trump prides himself on being a ‘ratings machine’, according to his January 6, 2017, tweet after the new “Celebrity Apprentice” came in with pathetic audience numbers. He keeps track. It’s his bio-feedback loop.
His presidential approval ratings came in at a record low of 41%. He rationalized that those numbers were rigged. He’s promised an “unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout”, predicting 2-3 million attending the inauguration. As of 9 AM today, the expectation is 700,000. An hour before, that estimate went up to 800,00. He’ll make an excuse for that as well.
Good. Now we know how to get his attention by giving him no attention.
Let’s start with the boycotting the inauguration events.
Think of it as your civic duty.
Instead of civil disobedience, call it media disobedience.
Trump measures his success in dollars and cents, but his claims defy verification. His Toronto Trump-branded hotel and condo tower have gone on the block. Hardly a fatal blow, but certainly an annoying itch. Harder, but not impossible, to dispute are audience numbers - although he is more than capable of pulling an Orwellian twist by turning a popular vote loss of 3,000,000 into ‘a massive landslide’ win.
He hates to lose anything so complement your media activism with consumer activism.
Fashion designers began doing just that in late November by declaring they would not dress Melania Trump. Tom Ford was particularly outspoken and sure enough, Trump kicked back on “Fox & Friends”, claiming that Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn had thrown Tom Ford’s clothing out of his Las Vegas hotel - except Tom Ford never had a store at the Wynn Las Vegas (although the hotel does stock Ford’s beauty products).
Before that in October, Shannon Coulter, @shannoncoulter (absolutely no relation to Ann Coulter), co-founder of #GrabYourWallet, started a boycott of companies owned by Ivanka Trump. The list of companies to avoid can be found at https://grabyourwallet.org/Boycott%20These%20Companies.html . Some companies have dropped the lines, others have not. If you like the idea of free speech, then this is nothing more than free spending.
You can protest with your dollars, but you can do the same with someone else’s money.
Nathan Phillips, an earth and environmental science professor, went to the Breitbart News site in late November 2016 and noticed the companies who had their ads there. Specifically, he took note of Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment's ad, the school from where he received his own degree. After much communication with Duke, they pulled their ad.
Sleeping Giants, a Twitter group (@slpnp_giants /www.facebook.com/slpnggiants) that formed in late November (the founders have asked to remain anonymous) noticed the same thing as Phillips. Progressive companies were advertising there. With a mandate to stop racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic news sites by stopping their ad dollars, Sleeping Giants have focused on the Breitbart site. By December 7, 400 companies had promised to pull their ads. When I reached out to Sleeping Giants on January 13, 2017, they said," 610 companies have pulled their ads from Breitbart including Visa, Audi, Chase, Charles Schwab and Lyft. That's in less than 2 months. We now have 37k+ followers and affiliated efforts in the EU and, more specifically, in Switzerland."
Nathan Phillips, an earth and environmental science professor, went to the Breitbart News site in late November 2016 and noticed the companies who had their ads there. Specifically, he took note of Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment's ad, the school from where he received his own degree. After much communication with Duke, they pulled their ad.
Sleeping Giants, a Twitter group (@slpnp_giants /www.facebook.com/slpnggiants) that formed in late November (the founders have asked to remain anonymous) noticed the same thing as Phillips. Progressive companies were advertising there. With a mandate to stop racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic news sites by stopping their ad dollars, Sleeping Giants have focused on the Breitbart site. By December 7, 400 companies had promised to pull their ads. When I reached out to Sleeping Giants on January 13, 2017, they said," 610 companies have pulled their ads from Breitbart including Visa, Audi, Chase, Charles Schwab and Lyft. That's in less than 2 months. We now have 37k+ followers and affiliated efforts in the EU and, more specifically, in Switzerland."
As of this column today, the number is up to 719.
In terms of the effect on Breitbart’s business, they have said nothing, but Sleeping Giants added, “Generally, in programmatic advertising, when the bigger companies drop off, the price for the space goes down, so you can assume that, with over 600 companies leaving, the price they can demand has gone down. As of now [Jan 13], Breitbart has not reached out, however, they have published the handle of one follower, leading to a flurry of abusive tweets, not that they have made a difference.”
Their approach is a light touch of the hand, which is dramatically different than any other protest I've seen. The message Sleeping Giants suggest tweeting inadvertent Breitbart advertisers is gentle, such as:
.@HBO Your ad popped up on Breitbart, a site that promotes racism and sexism. Please consider removing it @slpnp_giants
Their approach is a light touch of the hand, which is dramatically different than any other protest I've seen. The message Sleeping Giants suggest tweeting inadvertent Breitbart advertisers is gentle, such as:
.@HBO Your ad popped up on Breitbart, a site that promotes racism and sexism. Please consider removing it @slpnp_giants
Include a screengrab of the company's ad on the site in the tweet. It's surprising how often that company will respond with gratitude for letting them know.If successful, and it often is, Sleeping giants responds with a congratulatory confirmation.
Consumer-fueled activism is doubly rewarding in that not only does it have an impact, but you can be assured that somewhere, Trump’s ego is registering a loss.
