Which brands do you boycott and why?

[Walkingtheplank]

I'm determined to avoid purchasing products sold by companies that consider women inferior. Over recent years there have been quite a few such companies and I'm losing track. Just in the past week or so I've added Oatly and Innocent to my list although if I'm honest I'd only buy oat milk for guests and find Innocent smoothies and juices too sweet.

Which brands do you boycott and why?

There are so many bad ones on this subject - p&g, Topshop, Primark, the body shop, flora... Those are the companies at the top of my head. I pretty much try and avoid all the big names unless I've heard they've gone out of their way to do something positive. The only exception is Primark because it's cheap and I don't have much money, but I get charity shop clothes or use independent shops when I can.

I don’t have any objection to Oatly or innocent (at least morally - I don’t like innocent for taste reasons) because I agree with their stance towards trans women. But I do boycott nestle, on the basis of their disastrous formula advertising behaviours and general nastiness, and I avoid various individual products for a range of reasons (e.g. I don’t buy anything containing animal products or tested on animals save what I consider to be totally unavoidable, which is basically just medicines and vaccines, don’t buy anything containing palm oil, don’t buy fruit and veg grown in Israel, etc).

@percheron67

Don't Body Shop use ingredients that are not tested on animals though? For me, using cruelty free would outweigh most other things.

Animal testing for finished cosmetics was banned across Europe in 2004. ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/cosmetics/animal-testing_en

The only ones I've actively boycotted are M & S for completely failing to consult women about whether we wanted to have our bras fitted alongside men without boundaries in their changing rooms.
Body Shop
Lush
(and Nestle for decades)

Quite incredible how easy these companies are willing to alienate their women customers. Fortunately shopping more carefully and online using mainly ethical small businesses enables me not to waste money on those in thrall to Stonewall .

John Lewis as they also have mixed sex changing rooms

Tropic for supporting Mermaids & being MLM

I've never forgiven the CO OP for paying British farmers for below the cost of milk production,whilst touting how fair trade and sustainable they were.
Tesco for funding Mermaids
Lush,I have never agreed with anything that they've done.
Body shop/Avon, for what they did to JKR.
I don't buy artificial milks,spreads or smoothies,so not buying from Oatley or innocent is no effort on my part.
M&S and John Lewis,for allowing males in female changing rooms.
I don't buy anything French,neither do any of my family,we haven't done since they set lorries containing live British lambs on fire and watched them burn to death years ago.

Body Shop obviously, I think most women I know do actually. The way they treated JKR was appalling. How any woman would want to give them money I don’t know. Even my woke teenager girls thought a line was crossed.
Lush
Ocado
Flora
Stork
Starbucks
And now Innocent. I didn’t drink it but my teenagers went through a few bottles a week. Not any more they don’t!
There’s more, that’s just a few 😀

Thanks everyone who replied. So many of the responses reminded me of previous conversations. I think all the ones mentioned so far are below, together with what I think the reasons are (although I don't remember the specifics of each). What's clear is that most of these products are aimed at women or you'd expect them to be bought by women - so alienating seems to be an interesting decision.

Always: Scented sanitary products
Audible:
Avon JK Rowling stance + MLM
Body Shop: JK Rowling stance + MLM
Boots: Overpriced morning after pill
Co-op: Underpaying British farmers
Dove: Adverts e.g. men in the 'mothers' advert
Dubai, Qatar, Saudi: Treatment of women and LGBT
Flora:
French products Setting fire of lorries with live lambs inside
Innocent: Anti-feminism on Twitter
John Lewis: Mixed changing rooms
Lush: Gender issues, anti-women stance
M&S: Changing rooms
Nestlé: Formula in developing countries + stealing water
Oatly: Woke magazine advert
Ocado:
Primark:
Proctor & Gamble:
Ryanair: "the CEO is a tit"
Tesco: Donated to Mermaids
Top Shop:
Stork:
Starbucks:

Nestle for absolutely vile activities resulting in the deaths and ill health of many babies. Whilst Oatly et al are awful Nestlé are on another level of cuntishness.

john lewis lost three white goods sales. big ones too. mixed sex changing rooms.

Oatly and Flora

I’ve been avoiding Nestle since I was a teenager, I buy perhaps one of their products a year.
Body Shop. They will never get another penny from me.
I am not keen to shop at John Lewis or M&S nowadays, and certainly won’t use their changing rooms.
I have always loathed Innocent for their cutesy copy and Oatly are similar, so they are no loss.
Always - I was a loyal buyer for years, but there is no need now, as they have shown me (a woman) what they think of me and I can buy better, more ethical products very easily.

Crikey, the formatting on my post went rather awry!

When you say 'French' products do you mean a brand? Seems a bit bizarre (not to mention slightly racist) to boycott an entire country's produce for the acts of a few.

Nestle
Israeli produce (which is a nuisance as I would like a soda stream)

Private Eye- I officially renounced this boycott in about 1990
South Africa- also back on my shopping list, although does not feature highly due to food miles

I don't buy Body Shop, Flora, Innocent, Primark, Avon....but it's not a boycott as I would never have bought them anyway.

This article has a good list uncommongroundmedia.com/corporations-sponsor-extreme-porn-advocate-in-attack-on-lesbians-for-lesbian-visibility-week/

Tampax. I'd been using them for 25 years.

They replaced women/girls with "someone with a vagina" or "people with vaginas". If I'm not good enough to name, they don't need my money.

It must be awful for these companies to have to market to women when they hate us so much.

On a positive note, dumping Tampax is the best thing I've done for myself in ages.

I've been using a cup for the past 4/5 months and it's wonderful. The cup is easy to use and so liberating from heavy periods, it's the most freedom I've had (and the most secure from leaks I've felt) since my periods started.

I should actually write to Tampax and tell them that their woke bullshit marketing drove me away and did me a massive favour. I know my body better, I have more freedom and I've saved a fortune. My cup paid for itself after my second period. I must have spent thousands on Tampax over the years.

Sports Direct.

A horrible business owned by a ghastly obese oaf which sells chavvy tat to the dregs of society. Innit, bruv...

No I mean any produce from France. It isn't racist,I just choose where I spend my money. Some people don't buy halal because they disagree with cruelty,it's the same thing. Are other posters boycotting Israeli products 'racist' too?

Body Shop - gutted about this and still hoping to see a grovelling apology
M&S - changing rooms policy
John Lewis - as above
Lush - not hard as it's a migraine inducing nightmare place
Ryanair - same reason as given
Sports Direct - I loathe M.A. for many reasons
Starbucks - their coffee is as disgusting as their attitude

Lots of the others like Oatly, Tampax and Innocent I don't buy anyway so it's easy

The Labour Party

People mentioning the Body Shop; not only do they have an MLM side to their business which is an ethical bypass, and other controversial issues mentioned but they are also greenwashers extraordinaire and the original business idea was nicked from someone else in the US; the character of the business as a gentle little shop started by AR in Brighton isn’t quite correct. It’s now owned by Natura and in the same stable as the dreadful Avon, also in that stable is Aesop. I’m finding myself shopping less and shopping local wherever I can (aside from Lockdown) and I think it’s because there’s always some disappointment to be uncovered with the big brands.

Many of these - Lush, Body Shop, Primark, Topshop, Dove , Flora, Avon, Innocent, Audible, Oatly are shops / products I don't buy from/ buy anyway.

I used to boycott Tesco (because of Dame Shirley Porter and the Westminster (?) Council housing policy scandal. I stopped boycotting them when they became the first retailer to absorb the VAT on sanitary products and other supermarkets followed.

I have no intention of boycotting Marks & Spencer's food or Waitrose or John Lewis.

I boycott, as far as I possibly can, clothes and shoes which are not made in the UK or the EU. UK/ EU made underwear is a problem (someone posted a link to a UK manufacturer and I've lost it- if anyone knows which company can they repost it)

L’Oreal, Chanel, Tom Ford - because of animal testing.