Summary
Boycotts are big at the moment. On a global scale, many countries are boycotting Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. There are campaigns to boycott products produced in Turkey, Israel or China. Sporting boycotts are used by countries across the world to express their displeasure with their international rivals. And there are plenty of boycotts going on against companies, over working practices, supply chains and political stances.
But international boycotts can be easily circumvented, and we can choose alternative products if we don't like a particular manufacturer. So is this low risk activism, or is it an effective way for ordinary people to hold businesses and nations to account? Do boycotts ever lead to permanent change?
Above all, do they work? Journalist and writer David Baker investigates.
Presenter: David Baker Producer: Ravi Naik Editor: Clare Fordham Sound Engineer: Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Contributors: Caroline Heldman Associate Professor of politics at Occidental College, Los Angeles Stephen Chan Professor of World Politics at SOAS, University of London Mark Borkowski PR and Crisis Management agent Rob Harrison Director of Ethical Consumer Xinrong Zhu Assistant Professor in Marketing at Imperial College London Business School Richard Wilson Director and co-founder, Stop Funding Hate Professor Ellis Cashmore sociologist and cultural critic Ben Jamal Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Pinar Yildrim Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton (Business) School at the University of Pennsylvania
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
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| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for listening to this edition of Analysis, the podcast that looks at the ideas behind the news. |
| 0:43.4 | I'm David Baker and in this episode I'm looking at the effectiveness of boycotts. |
| 0:50.7 | I'm in my local supermarket and I've got a website up on my phone which tells you which products are ethical and which aren't and I'm going to give it a go. |
| 1:02.0 | I've got a pack of tea here that I usually buy so let's have a look. |
| 1:08.0 | Scroll down. Okay, it looks like we're meant to be boycotting that company's products because of poor |
| 1:17.8 | labour conditions. Okay? There's a different one here that I often get. |
| 1:27.0 | Hmm, that looks like it's not gonna pass it either, |
| 1:29.5 | something to do with their environmental standards, to do with water, water usage. |
| 1:36.4 | Okay, what about this one? |
| 1:37.9 | This is quite an upmarket brand. |
| 1:42.2 | My goodness, the holding company is connected to arms manufacturer. Who knew? |
| 1:50.0 | In fact, scrolling down this list, it looks like there's loads of companies and brands that |
| 1:56.5 | were meant to be boycotting for one reason or another. |
| 2:01.3 | We have seen rates of consumer activism primarily in the form of boycotts have been skyrocketing. |
| 2:07.0 | Boycots are big at the moment. On a global scale, many countries are boycotting Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. |
... |
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