Facebook Ad Boycott Is a Worthy Use of Brand Power
Patagonia, REI and North Face are right: Facebook might feel more urgency to change if the pressure weren’t just philosophical, but financial.
Big advertisers like North Face have unique leverage to push for change.
Photographer: AnthonyRosenberg/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
When it comes to responding to the current reckoning on racial injustice, a trio of outdoorsy retailers are blazing a trail their industry peers should follow.
Patagonia, REI and VF Corp.’s North Face have in recent days committed to temporarily yanking advertising from Facebook and Instagram as part of a campaign to pressure the Silicon Valley social-media titan to do more to curb hate speech and language promoting violence on its platform. A coalition of civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League, are behind the effort, which aims to get businesses to pause their spending on Facebook ads for the month of July.