Carrotmobbing - A form of Social Activism

Written by AnnieOakley on January 24, 2009

My thanks to Michael Quinion, of World Wide Words, for bringing this great word to my attention:

2. Turns of Phrase: Carrotmobbing
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It's a form of social activism. It was coined last year by Brent
Schulkin, a US environmentalist based in San Francisco. When people
carrotmob, they shop at a small business, specially chosen for its
good environmental practices, in large numbers on the same day. But
Mr Schulkin has introduced a twist: he asks the business to invest
a proportion of that day's takings in energy-efficient improvements
at its stores.

The second part of the name is based on "flash mob" (see the Web
site piece at http://wwwords.org?F89H). The first part borrows the
idea of using a carrot rather than a stick to encourage behaviour.
It's a form of what's been called a "buycott" or a "procott", the
opposite of a boycott, a form of collective action in which people
choose to buy from firms whose values - in areas such as social
justice and environmental protection - reflect and support their
own.

* San Francisco Magazine, Jun. 2008: You might call Carrotmob
"Flash Mob 2.0," since it combines the whimsy of those events with
the Sierra Club's seriousness of purpose, hitting the sweet spot
between the Bay Area's two dominant poses: pointless irony and
earnest do-gooderism.

* Guardian, 18 Sep. 2008: CarrotMobbing emerged in the US earlier
this year. It uses the "carrot" of consumer buying rather than the
"stick" of boycotting or bad publicity to encourage ethical
business. Alone, our consumer choices make a minimal impact, but
together and organised we unlock a bigger bargaining power.