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Comment by eulers_secret | Hacker News Reader

It’s interesting how internet backlashes can be large enough to move the needle: ring breaking with flock is evidence of this.

Yet simultaneously the internet represents the opinions of a very small and vocal minority.

I’ve never seen an internet boycott have an impact.

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You have now. "Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash" is literally on the front of Hacker News.

>It’s interesting how internet backlashes can be large enough to move the needle:

Brexit.

Bud Light's stock performance last year would like to have a word with you.

Could you analyse AB InBev's stock performance in that period? Because it doesn't look bad to me. [1] It looks like it was $65 before the boycott in April 2023, falling to $55 a couple of months later. But it was back up to $65 by the end of the year. It sits at $80 today.

If I hadn't told you the date of the boycott, would you have been able to spot it on this chart?

[1] - https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/bud?gaa_at=eafs&...

On the contrary. It appears that Bud Light sales continued to fall.

https://sherwood.news/business/beer-bud-light-market-share-b...

Budweiser stock did recover, but they haven't (afaik) repeated the behavior that got them boycotted in the first place. It appears that this boycott achieved exactly what was sought.

I'd agree that this is a rare exception, and that boycotts are almost never successful. But this really is an example of that unicorn.

("repeated the behavior that got them boycotted in the first place" = sponsor an influencer who happens to be trans)

Alcohol across all verticals is down. How can we attribute this fall to their issues specifically?

The important point is that those doing the boycott have achieved their aim. A-B is no longer marketing in the way that those people disagreed with.

What would it say?

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