event

#grabyourwallet

Facts (27)

Sources

Digital consumer activism: Agency and commodification in the digital ... ephemerajournal.org ephemera 27 facts

accountThe #grabyourwallet hashtag campaign emerged on Twitter in October 2016 as a call to boycott brands and businesses associated with Donald Trump.

perspectiveThe #grabyourwallet campaign demonstrates a tension between resisting consumer markets through responsible choice and relying on digital platforms that are intent on the commodification of information.

accountShannon Coulter, a San Francisco-based marketing professional, launched the #grabyourwallet campaign, leveraging her professional experience in creating social media content for brands to organize economic dissent.

measurementDuring the first ten days of the #grabyourwallet campaign, Shannon Coulter's posts received over one million views, 200 direct replies per day, and hundreds of retweets, according to Walters (2016).

claimThe #grabyourwallet campaign successfully impacted the market for Ivanka Trump’s clothing and footwear line.

claimShannon Coulter stated that professionals who were willing to speak to the press about their participation in the #grabyourwallet campaign were essential for maintaining the campaign's credibility and momentum.

referenceThe study 'Digital consumer activism: Agency and commodification in the digital economy' analyzes digitally mediated agency and the transformation of consumption meanings by examining three case studies: #grabyourwallet, #deleteuber and #deletetwitter, and Connecting Good (CoGo).

claimThe #grabyourwallet campaign mobilized agency through consumer boycotting and the discursive sharing of personal stories, aiming for collective prosperity independent of commercial ideologies.

accountTo overcome technical limitations, the founder of #grabyourwallet, Coulter, commissioned the creation of a dedicated website and a Chrome Plugin that displayed pop-up messages regarding Trump connections when users visited the websites of boycotted businesses.

claimThe #grabyourwallet and CoGo campaigns achieved more sustained consumer agency mobilization than Twitter-based campaigns by utilizing formal organizations and strategies beyond social media.

claimThe digital consumer activism campaign #grabyourwallet was developed by a practitioner skilled in social media and has since expanded to include a range of activist resources.

accountThe #grabyourwallet campaign initially utilized a Google spreadsheet to list businesses for boycott, but growth was restricted when Google imposed a cap of 50 visitors per spreadsheet.

claimCaptiv8 reported that a significant portion of social media posts containing the #grabyourwallet hashtag originated from California and New York, suggesting the campaign had strong regional traction in those areas, according to Halzack (2017).

quoteShannon Coulter stated that 'the biggest lever was press' in turning concerns into a popular movement of economic withdrawal, highlighting the importance of publicity to the #grabyourwallet campaign.

claimThe #grabyourwallet campaign utilized discursive activism to support the online sharing and connecting of personal stories, a practice identified as characteristic of the rise of hashtag feminism by Clark (2016).

claimShannon Coulter provided charismatic leadership for the #grabyourwallet campaign, leveraging her professional marketing background and creative capital to increase the visibility of the cause through digital technologies.

measurementBy 2017, the #grabyourwallet campaign generated over 496,000 engagements, including likes and retweets, on Twitter and Instagram, according to the analytics company Captiv8.

claimThe #grabyourwallet and CoGo campaigns avoided 'agential evanescence' by utilizing leadership, structured campaign formats, and diverse activist tactics.

measurementThe #grabyourwallet campaign website received approximately two million unique visitors per month shortly after its launch, according to Kramer (2017).

claimIn the case studies of #grabyourwallet and CoGo, the logics of accumulation within the digital economy are either hidden or treated as a tactic to be exploited, rather than addressing the ethical problems produced by the digital economy itself.

procedureThe research methodology for the #grabyourwallet case study involves a semi-structured interview of a key actor, supported by textual analysis of the campaign website and media analytics.

accountTen days after the #grabyourwallet campaign began, the department store Nordstrom initially stated it had no plans to stop selling the Ivanka Trump collection, but subsequently decided to drop the brand, according to reports by Abrams (2017) and Walters (2016).

claimThe #grabyourwallet campaign transitioned from a hashtag-based activist movement into a not-for-profit organization to sustain its efforts in turning consumer power into a more just and inclusive world.

perspectiveThe #grabyourwallet campaign is not a form of slacktivism—defined by Christensen (2012) as political activity that increases participant satisfaction without impacting real-life outcomes—because the campaign resulted in negative publicity for Trump brands and successful economic divestment.

claimThe #grabyourwallet campaign functions as a form of connective action, as defined by Bennett and Segerberg (2012), by enabling individuals to share personal stories that provide reasons for refusing to purchase Trump-related goods and services.

accountThe #grabyourwallet campaign targeted retailers including Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Lord & Taylor, Overstock.com, Zappos, and Amazon, as well as golf courses, wineries, and advertisers of the television show Celebrity Apprentice.

claimThe #grabyourwallet campaign is classified as both a media-oriented and a marketplace-oriented boycott.