Online consumer activism: Challenging companies with Change.org

Abstract

Within this article, I explore how consumer activists use the petition site Change.org to successfully resist and challenge corporate business practices. Bringing together literature from communication, political science and consumer behaviour, and using case studies of two successful campaigns, I trace a process of online consumer activism where the comments of individuals pursuing personal publicity aggregate to attract negative media attention to a brand, leading to subsequent corporate behaviour change. This process of online consumer activism illustrates a dynamic interplay between online spaces of participation, personal publicizations and the formation of identities for both consumers and companies, furthering our understanding of how online spaces are being used for digital anti-corporate activism.