To think boycotters only see one side of the story and are ill-informed?

[Username2018]

I’ve worked for a couple of companies who are regularly boycotted. I have been massively impressed with their commitment to R&D and education, and corporate social responsibility generally, despite the public thinking they are Satan.

They don’t get everything right, there have been mistakes, they are not perfect, but these were due to employee error, not because of a corporate strategy. And what these companies ‘give back’ directly and indirectly is largely not known by joe public.

AIBU to think most boycotters don’t weigh up the good and the bad and just go along with the propaganda they see from not necessarily reliable sources??

Oops sorry Zebedee ...it wasnt you who said that sorry

I stopped boycotting Nestle when they were first included in the ftse4good. Hasnt the boycott now been dropped in the US and abandoned by many in the UK, including the Royal College of Midwives?

I knew about Nestlés unethical promotions of formula but I hadn’t heard the CEOs quote about access to water. So thanks OP this thread has been informative in reminding me what a morally bankrupt company they are. Not sure why Nestlé is so desperate Mumsnetters pink kitkats though?

I was rather over-invested in yesterday's Kitkat thread.

Was there more than one?

• to sell Mumsnetters pink kitkats

I also stopped my nestle boycott a few years ago when it looked like they had got better and they do a lot of productuts in plastic free packaging (I try not to use single use plastic) but I have now started again as nestle once again up to its old baby milk tricks - they really don’t seem to care www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/27/formula-milk-companies-target-poor-mothers-breastfeeding

Thank you for starting this, OP. You’re helping people that weren’t previously ‘educated’ about Nestlé, learn from those that are. A bit of an own goal, I would say. 😁

Wait, a company that allows slave labour in their supply chain (specifically child slave labour) is in the FTSE4GOOD???? WTF?????

I boycotted South African goods in the 70s and 80s ( and strongly supported the sporting boycott). We left South Africa because of apartheid when I was a toddler. We emigrated to NZ in my teens and then came back to the UK partly because an election was fought and won on the basis that the rugby team would tour SA with the government's blessing

I had many an argument lively discussion with friends at Uni about why both the sporting and consumer boycotts were effective and the right things (actually in SA, the sports boycott was even more effective as for the white minority, cricket and rugby were practically religions) and educated them about the realities of apartheid.

I would tell shop owners (especially local shops) why I wasn't able to buy their apples/grapes/whatever (without the in-depth discussion my friends got ). May well have made no difference - but if enough people told them that they'd lost a sale because of the provenance of their goods, then they might have chosen to make a different supplier.

I currently wouldn't buy from Dyson or go into Wetherspoon's (to be truthful: neither were likely as our aged Dyson is going strong and Wetherspoon's is, well, Wetherspoon's ) because of their owners' hypocritical support for Brexit.

So YABU OP - both in your thread title, where you assume that people are ill-informed in making their choice to boycott and also in your actual post, where again you assume that people haven't thought through their decision.

P.S. I’m sure Nestlé will be delighted with you. 😉

I boycott Nestle and have done for about 20 years.

I did email them once saying that I thought their practices pushing baby milk on impoverished women in the developing world were horrific and they sent me some very glossy marketing literature saying they were nice people really.

Didn't believe a word of it.

AIBU to think most boycotters don’t weigh up the good and the bad and just go along with the propaganda they see from not necessarily reliable sources??

Yeah, we should have ignored all those dodgy journalists and diplomats and NGOs, and carried on supporting the regime in South Africa to discriminate, oppress, and violently subdue the black population.

YABVU

And I shall join gettingthere in her boycott of Hermes and Dyson in solidarity. Because I'll never be able to afford anything from either

Do nestle make any uk formula brands

Not under their own brand, but they own the company which makes SMA.

info.babymilkaction.org/pressrelease/pressrelease23apr12

One of the issues with boycotting is that you are a drop in the ocean to multi billionaire corporations. Another issue is that honestly, you would have to boycott just about everywhere and be completely self sufficient to avoid any remote human rights issues. E.g my dad boycotted Nestle, McDonald’s, Nike, Coca Cola and shell gas many many years ago but he would still buy from other similar companies so imo that’s defeating the purpose. My best friend boycotts Starbucks because he believes it’s run by Zionism but he’ll go to costa who don’t pay tax. If you’re avoiding primark because of sweat shops, you need to also avoid most of the high street. Honestly, you wouldn’t have many places left to shop.

Also many people try to boycott Israel but there are things you never would consider that were made in Israel, components for computers springs to mind. It’s a catch 22 imo and as I said, unless the whole of the UK boycotted a company, they really wouldn’t feel any pain from it.

Well I boycott McVities and other companies who use battery hen eggs in their products - telling me the birds are in enhanced cages is just a sop and a load of bollocks. This stance again isn't one of a few employees here and there it is a decision made at the top. I am pretty sure the CEO isn't terribly bothered that I don't buy his/her products, but it makes me feel better when I look at my beautiful ex-battery rescue hens. It's disgraceful. Not as disgraceful as Nestle obviously but those who treat animals badly often don't treat humans well either.

I also boycott a company that laid my carpets and bathroom floor badly with no apology.

Little things to make me feel I am doing something.

Boycotting high street clothes is fairly easy really. Most of us have too many clothes anyway. Charity shops can supply much of what you need. Ethical brands like peopletree do most basics. If their out of your budget H and M conscious brand is pretty good and mainstream available

the israel boycott became a joke when some fool made an app to guide boycotters, running of course on a well known device with many israel made components and software.

i dont buy from amazon which means the occasional thing i buy costs me more, thats paying tax for you. but as I buy very little I doubt they lose.much slee p. i suppose i also boycott starbucks and costa, but then it would never occur to me to walk about with a one use coffee when i can !ake decent stuff at home.

I won't but anything advertised by Kate Moss or Angelina Jolie, absolutely my own personal choice for not one penny if my hard earned money to go anywhere near these two.

Irrational, maybe, make a difference...unlikely, makes me feel better about my purchasing choices ...yes.

that takes me back - moss was the end of me buying makeup as the brand she flogged was the cheap one, so i did without and then realised it wasnt an issue.

One of the issues with boycotting is that you are a drop in the ocean to multi billionaire corporations.

So we should just do nothing because what we do isn't enough?

Nah. If everyone does a drop, we'll have our own ocean.

I work for a mega Corp. one of our products is always being boycotted for one reason or another. As a result the company works hard to be above politics, societal trends, the whole lot.

It used to annoy me that we do a lot of good work to counter the 'bad' but we don't shout about it. Then I realised that we'd get shot down by the press no matter what we do, so it's better to do the good stuff because we are genuinely making a difference, the virtue signalling doesn't matter so much.

I boycott for lots of reasons, I like to think my boycott of local business paying less than the NMW will hit harder but I doubt it.

I also boycott anywhere that has interviewed me and not given me a job. That’s completely bonkers but I don’t have to justify it to anyone (other than DH who diligently found somewhere else to get keys cut).

I’m not convinced it’s an educated decision in lots of cases oh please come and patronise a large number of people often responsible for the household purchases a bit more OP spokesperson for Nestle PR department
Palm oil - even over everything else, that's enough for me.

I peak Nestle'd everyone on the maternity ward by switching the TV over from the soaps to the news.

Doing some good work to counter the bad isn't good enough.