Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies Articles


Share

What You Should Understand About Pressure Campaigns

From Trey Morrow
Facebook posting, February 2023

If we are not good on our word all of this falls apart. If we are not clear on our asks, it all falls apart. If we can’t be disciplined enough to only ask for what’s achievable, it all falls apart.


end speciesism

1. STICK TO THE ASK

If the ask is that a company announce a fur-free policy, do not mention leather. Do not mention down. Do not mention exotic skins. Do not mention wool.

If the ask is that the store drop foie-gras, do not bring up dairy. Do not bring up eggs. Do not bring up honey.

Yes those are horrific industries also, but bringing them up could actually hurt the chances of the campaign being successful.

Usually the point of a pressure campaign is coming up with a reasonable ask that you think the company/entity might actually go for if enough pressure is applied. As soon as you utter words that are beyond the ask, you change the campaign entirely.

For example, say a company is seriously considering taking fur off the racks. Then they notice some activists are asking them to drop leather also. They only sell a little bit of fur so it’s not worth dealing with all of the annoyance from activists, but to drop leather would be a totally different story. They sell only a little fur, but a LOT of leather. If the company thinks that activists will not stop until the store is completely vegan, what is their incentive for dropping fur? There isn’t one.

2. ONCE THE COMPANY DOES WHAT YOU ASK, LEAVE THEM ALONE

Some activists think “wow, we just got them to stop selling fur, now let’s put the pedal to the metal and get them to stop selling down!”

If you do not leave the company alone, at least for a significant amount of time after you win, you are likely hurting the animals.

It’s a similar concept to before. If you immediately launch down protests against the same company you just got a fur victory with, the company will think “there’s no point in dropping down because then they will just protest silk. These activists will not stop until we go vegan. There’s no point, we should not have even dropped fur. Maybe it’s not too late to go back on our word.”

Additionally, other companies considering going fur-free may think “well when this other company went fur-free the protests continued. We may as well stick to our guns and keep fur if we are going to be protested for other products.”

3. IF THERE IS A CURRENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST A COMPANY, DO NOT LAUNCH A SEPARATE CAMPAIGN WITH A DIFFERENT ASK

If you do this, you will hurt the chances of BOTH campaigns. If Activist Group A is trying to get Bad Restaurant to drop foie-gras and Activist Group B comes in and launches a campaign to get Bad Restaurant to take octopus off their menu, chances are neither one will happen. They may not sell enough foie-gras to deal with continued pressure and they may not sell enough octopus to deal with continued pressure, but they probably make enough off of foie-gras and octopus combined to put up with the pressure for a lot longer or maybe forever.

There’s another restaurant in town that sells octopus. Go after that one. Or better yet, join the activists trying to stop foie-gras and form a coalition. Keep your campaigns against separate restaurants.

It’s not about caring about once species over another. It’s about strategy.

Part of the strategy is using speciesism and the opinion of the general non-vegan public to our advantage to get victories.

Once fur is completely wiped out, circle back around and protest exotic skins. There are enough companies selling fur to keep us busy for a little while. Go back to that company after you give them a break so that when you come back they think “okay if we drop this next thing they are asking us to drop, they will actually stop the protests for at least 3-5 years before they come after us again.”

If we are not good on our word all of this falls apart. If we are not clear on our asks, it all falls apart. If we can’t be disciplined enough to only ask for what’s achievable, it all falls apart.

Return to Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies