Inmates: How To Effectively Boycott The NFL

Many individuals agree with Colin Kaepernick’s reason for kneeling during the National Anthem in protest against police brutality against Black people. Others may not feel as strongly about issues that specifically concern Black people, but nevertheless agree with Kaepernick’s right to protest without that exercise of his first Amendment right rendering him jobless and unemployed. However, many leaders within the NFL do not seem to agree that players have the right to kneel during the National Anthem at all – for whatever reason. Trump has of course decided to take a public and firm opinion that some leaders within the NFL have decided to echo, and now some of leaders have decided to punish any play who does not stand for the National Anthem.

The NFL has thus hypocritically taken a strong, public political stance that no player can take a political stance during a game. As a result, many are outraged and there is currently much talk about boycotting the NFL as a result of their blatant disrespect not only toward Black people, but also toward every American’s first Amendment right to peacefully protest, as a means and vehicle to “petition the government for a redress of grievances” (U.S. Constitution, First Amendment).

Some, however, criticize that boycotting won’t actually do anything.

Thus: this article.

In this article, I will quickly outline a practical, and PROVEN effective way to boycott the NFL and produce tangible results.

Based on my research, there are successful ways to boycott, and there are UNSUCCESSFUL ways to boycott.

Research concludes that boycotting large organizations is best done by boycotting their sponsors in order to reduce the amount of support they receive and hurt their revenue and profit. One of the easier ways to boycott the NFL is to stop watching the games, but there must be more!

Here are the 5 most important considerations for EFFECTIVELY and SUCCESSFULLY boycotting the NFL based on research:

Even if you, for whatever reason, cannot stop watching the games, the most effective way to boycott the NFL is to stop buying products from their sponsors and advertisers. This can be tricky, however, since many of their sponsors are companies that fall under a large parent company that own a whole lot of other companies. For instance, if you boycott Tide and start buying Gain instead, both are owned by Procter & Gamble, so not buying Gain instead of Tide is not really effectively boycotting.

Further, there are SO MANY advertisers. How can you boycott them all? That’s just too much. The good news is, research shows that you don’t have to. Instead, all you have to do is narrow it down to a few significant companies and boycott them. But you must sustain the boycott. This means, you can’t just stop buying Tide for a month, but you have to stop buying Tide for a long period of time, until they meet the boycott’s demands. According to Eben Novy-Williams of Bloomberg Politics, if people do not force advertisers and sponsors to take action against the NFL, they simply won’t and will instead choose to stay out of it since, “[t]here’s little incentive for sponsors to pick sides under the best of circumstances.” Because of this, we must force them to pick a side by boycotting their products if they do not meet the boycott’s demands.

Which brings me to the third component of an effective boycott. There has to be a public demand of what you want the organization and companies to DO in order to get consumers (you) to start supporting them again. In other words, there needs to be a clear, and reasonable demand.

Studies show that the boycott must be practical and consumers must be able to fairly easily participate. While it may not be entirely convenient, boycotting must not be too difficult. Otherwise, it is not sustainable and can’t gain traction by having a large amount of people participate. The key is, there must be A LOT of people participating. Every. Single. Person. Who. Participates. Counts. And. Matters!

Rewarding other companies that are not affiliated with the organization you boycott, and rewarding the companies that meet your demands after you boycott them are also an important aspect of successful boycotts. Because of this, I have listed the big businesses that you can buy from instead of the companies on the list to boycott. You can, however, buy products from other companies if you choose, but you must still be sure you don’t buy beer, laundry detergent, or soup from the boycotted brands.

Now, I’ve developed a plan, that everyone can participate in and follow, should you choose to accept the challenge to make the NFL change their ways.

Here it goes.

I’ve done my research and narrowed down the list to THREE key advertisers that everyone should boycott. These are heavy-hitters that spend A LOT of advertising and sponsorship dollars with the NFL.

THE THREE ADVERTISERS TO BOYCOTT, THE SPECIFIC PRODUCTS TO BOYCOTT, AND THEIR PARENT COMPANIES

LAUNDRY DETERGENT: Tide – owned by Procter & Gamble

SOUP: Campbell’s Soup – owned by Campbell’s Soup

BEER: Budweiser – owned by Anheuser Busch

Why these three?

Because they spend so much money with the NFL, just boycotting these three can SIGNIFICANTLY hurt the NFL’s pockets and force them to yield if they want to continue these financially beneficial relationships. In fact, Tide made a deal with the NFL to be a leading sponsor back in 2012. The deal is so large that, according to Anthony Crupi of Adweek, the “[f]inancial terms of Tide’s deal with the 32 NFL teams were not disclosed. And while P&G keeps a tight lid on the terms of its 2009 pact with the league, analysts estimate the CPG giant pays north of $100 million for the privilege of aligning its brands with the NFL.” This means that boycotting Tide and Procter & Gamble laundry detergents can potentially effect $100 million of the NFL’s revenue! Boom.

To be effective, however, CONSUMERS CANNOT BUY SIMILAR PRODUCTS MADE BY THE PARENT COMPANIES. Now, you don’t have to boycott ALL Procter & Gamble’s products, but if you boycott Tide, you must at least boycott ALL of Procter & Gamble’s laundry detergent. Because of this, below, I will provide you with a list of options of products that you CAN buy that these companies and their parent companies do NOT own. STICK TO THIS LIST! When in doubt, I’ve provided links to websites for the companies we will boycott so you can look up a brand to see if their parent company owns it.

Instead of Tide, you SHOULD buy:

Arm and Hammer, and Oxi Clean laundry detergents, both owned by Church & Dwight, Procter & Gamble’s competition.

Instead of Campbell’s Soup, you SHOULD buy:

Progresso Soup brands

Annie’s Soup brand

Both of these above brands are owned by General Mills, Campbell’s competition.

Instead of Anheuser Busch beers, you SHOULD buy:

Heineken – owned by Heineken company.

Other beers brands Heineken owns are:

Strongbow (ciders)

Tecate

Dos Equis

Also, consider that many CRAFT BEERS are now also owned by Anheuser Busch. Look carefully. Any craft beer with this label is independent, NOT owned by Anheuser Busch, and thus safe to buy:

When you are shopping, if you are ever in doubt, it’s pretty easy to look up a brand online and view all the brands & labels they own.

LASTLY, what is our demand? The boycott’s demand is that Procter & Gamble (Tide), Anheuser Busch (Budweiser), and Campbell’s Soup must cease and desist all advertising campaigns that explicitly affiliate themselves with the NFL (like Tide’s commercials), and also withdraw their advertising and sponsorship from the NFL. Until they do BOTH these things, we must not buy any laundry detergent, soup, or beer that is affiliated with their umbrella companies.

Here are links to each company to verify that what you buy in terms of beer, laundry detergent, or soup, are NOT affiliated with their parent company.

Campbell’s Soup brands

List of Procter & Gamble Laundry Detergent brands

Anheuser Busch beers listed in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page

And here’s a easily formatted Wikipedia page with a complete list, and an easy to view list of the specific craft beers they own.

If you want to see the list of products for the brands and companies you SHOULD purchase instead of those we boycott, here you go:

Heineken Brands

General Mills Soup Brands

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