Update on Glenn Sacks's David & Goliath campaign

zenpriest writes "From an email from Glenn -


Last Sunday evening we initiated round 4 of our campaign against our largest target yet--Claire's, which has 2,875 retail outlets in nearly a dozen countries. They sell hats, wallets, wristbands, socks and other products which say "Boys are Stupid--Throw Rocks at Them" and "Stupid Factory--Where Boys Are Made." The next morning hundreds of you wrote and called Claire's to complain, and Claire's executives met Monday morning to decide whether they should continue to sell the products.

Apparently the result of that meeting was a decision to request that all letter writers and callers send Claire's their full names and mailing addresses so that Claire's could snail mail them a response. I speculate that Claire's did this to gauge our true level of support. Perhaps they believe that our campaign is really the work of a few individuals with a bunch of different e-mail addresses. Also, I believe they are stalling in the hope that our campaign will lose steam.

As I said during my January 18 broadcast, I did not expect Claire's to give in as quickly as our three previous targets did, all of whom capitulated before noon the day following our broadcast. Please give them the information they requested so they will see the broad support our campaign has garnered. Also, urge your families, friends, and colleagues to get involved.

Also, while I'm touched that hundreds of you have joined our campaign, given the size of this e-list it is clear that there are many of you who have not participated. If this is because you disagree with our campaign then I'll respect your opinion. If not, then I urge you to join us. All information about the campaign, including contact information for Claire's, will always be available at Join Campaign Against 'Boys are Stupid' Products.

The campaign against Claire's has received some prominent endorsements and press coverage. and has made local news in Cleveland, Washington state, and others. There are major media outlets who have expressed an interest in covering our campaign, though if our action against Claireâ??s fails they probably won't materialize.

Some of you have been writing Claire's about "Boys are Stupid--Throw Rocks at Them" T-shirts. Please remember, as I stated in my broadcast and on our campaign page, Claire's sells many "Boys are Stupid" products but does not sell T-shirts.

zenpriest writing now: My position is that Claire's has already proven that they are not worth doing any business with in the future. They don't have the quality of people who would discontinue the products just because they are foul, but must have it proven to them that there are enough people involved in this campaign for it to really hurt them if they continue to ignore such people.

Let's show them how wrong they are, and see how much of a decrease in their business we can achieve by bad mouthing them to everyone who will listen."

Thomas writing now: Often people who lead boycotts don't threaten never to do business with a company in the future, even if that company desists in the offending behavior, since by making that threat boycotters make it clear that their actions will be the same, whether or not the offending behavior is stopped. As a result, the company has less incentive to stop. Everyone can decide for themselves, but I agree that Claire's has shown itself to be the type of business with which no decent person should do business at any time in the future. Unless, perhaps, every officer of the corporation is removed over this.

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