Even democratic political systems can make people feel powerless. Particularly when the act of protesting in person is against the law. This is where the ‘buycott’ comes in.
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What is a buycott?
Consumers use buycotts to gain influence and vote on an issue. To buycott is to politicise your own economic means, however limited. Buycotts positively promote political and ethical views. A buycott goes beyond a boycott.
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines a boycott as:
The action of refusing to buy a product, do business with a company, or take part in an activity as a way of expressing strong disapproval.
The Collins English Dictionary defines a buycott as:
A type of protest aimed at a company or country with dubious ethical standards in which consumers buy the products of another company or country.
Therefore, to take part in a buycott, not only must you stop purchasing a product that is unethical, you should deliberately purchase an ethical one instead. For example, you might be concerned about the negative effects of palm oil production on the Amazon rainforest. So you buycott by ceasing to buy products containing palm oil and buy and promote palm oil-free products.
It is even more effective to inform the company that you have stopped buying their products in favour of something else. You can make a buycott public by sharing on social media.
How to buycott
You can buycott as an individual or collectively, as a business or as a consumer.
- Think about the issues that matter to you.
- Withdraw economic support for any individual, business or country that doesn’t uphold your values.
- Transfer your financial allegiance to organisations and people who share your priorities.
- Stock and equip your business in line with your politics.
It seems easy to buycott, but it can get complicated, particularly with banking and investments.
It may seem that you are putting a perfectly harmless product in your trolley. However, it is not always clear who owns the company that made it. The product itself might be environmentally friendly and have reassuring messaging on the label, but some of the profit may ultimately go to an unethical corporation.
There is help available to navigate the moral pitfalls. Ethical Consumer is a comprehensive source of information.
There is an app called Buycott that does all the hard work on your behalf. Buycott makes it easy to make the right choices by simply scanning barcodes. There are campaigns to join, and a feature that enables consumers to notify relevant companies about their buycott decisions.
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Buycott golden rules
To avoid having to making decisions about each individual item you buy, or service you book, follow these simple buycotting guidelines:
- Support small businesses. It’s hard to keep track of large corporations and the political influence they exert.
- Stay loyal to brands you can trust.
- Buy goods made and sold in your local area to boost the economy and support local people. Your feedback will have more influence.
- Put your money where your mouth is. Stop buying from countries whose political regimes are suspect, and boost the economy of those you support.
- Consider the economic effect your buycott may have on those less fortunate.
Impactful buycotts
The word ‘buycott’ has been used in the past as an alternative to ‘anti-boycott’. An anti-boycott retaliates against a boycott by giving economic favour to a company or country that is being boycotted. But a buycott doesn’t have to be in direct response to a boycott.
Here are some campaigns that can retrospectively be termed buycotts:
- Fairtrade: The positive choice of individuals to purchase Fairtrade products has been making a difference in the developing world since the 1990s.
- Straw poll: The anti-plastic straw movement managed to eradicate unnecessary use of plastic straws by boycotting restaurants that used them – and buycotting in favour of businesses who served drinks without.
- Food Miles: The concept of measuring and reducing Food Miles has been a powerful way to reduce the impact on the environment when produce is transported over large distances. By proactively selecting products with fewer Food Miles, consumer habits reduce harm to the environment.
Is your wallet a hero?
Large corporations have caught on to the positive power of buycotts and now use political signalling in their advertising and social media. It can be time-consuming to agonise over every purchase, and difficult to find everything sufficiently ethical. It’s much less trouble to hand over social responsibility to the supermarket!
Lasting political and economic change is hard to achieve through small scale buycotts, but not impossible. Overall, it is clear that how we spend our money does indeed make a difference. We have to buy into the future we want.
