Arma Borealis has a bit on how our opponents plan to drive their Starbucks Protest. Chris calls it “fake journalism.” That might be the case, but the tactic is smart. They know they can’t beat us with numbers, so they have to beat us with tactics. Their tactic, I don’t think, will change many minds on the issue. I personally don’t like being accosted and dragged into a cause when I’m on my way to do something. I think a lot of people feel the same way.
But what they hope, is that Starbucks will capitulate to them in order to make the unwanted attention go away. These are classic tactics to use in order to shake down a corporation into doing what you want them to do, and generally speaking, it’s effective. Will it work in this case? 11,000+ people on Facebook and still climbing, and this is a purely grassroots effort. I think it’s safe to say we could hit 20 or 30 thousand by the time February 14th rolls around. Those kinds of numbers talk, and what Starbucks surely doesn’t want, are those kinds of numbers turning against them.
If we win we’ll still lose!
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Coffee, Firearms and Explosives.
Given that Starbuck’s goal in this is to keep themselves out of the news entirely, I wonder how they feel about the buycott.
Hope the Seattle OCers don’t make a huge awkward deal out of this like they always do…
I got the distinct impression that they were encouraging activists to film each other, but make it seem like they were interviewing strangers. That way they avoid the issue of having interviewees who disagree with them or don’t give appropriate responses.
For example, the site talks about having a script, where the answers given by interviewees are canned. That is theater, not an interview.
Those numbers don’t include anti-social misfits like me who don’t use Facebook, but will be heading to Starbucks just the same.