Political activism is nothing new. The idea of making non-voting decisions based on political statements, positions, etc., is also not new. These concepts going mainstream is, and that's what's changing in today's hyper-political environment.
Recently researcher Civic Science found that 28% of Americans are currently "boycotting" a company or brand. This is up 22% from last year and a record high. It also found that only 52% have never boycotted a company or brand. This is also a record and it's down 61% from a year ago.
So basically, half of the country has now boycotted something at some point with well over a quarter currently boycotting it's a trend that's growing. Here's the other thing, you might think it's largely kids or young adults but it's not. While there's a growing trend in boycotting and activism with young adults and a slight drop in X'ers, it's actually older adults that are the most likely to boycott right now. Here is how the top 3 generation rank from most to least likely to boycott: #1: Gen Xer's, #2: Baby Boomers, #3: Millennials.
The research is designed to find out trends rather than the specific boycotts underway. However, one might imagine that a big part of the explanation is that the majority of X'ers and Boomers were Trump voters. They would be among the more likely to boycott particular news networks that have been hostile towards the administration and are among the most likely to have supported the NFL. As we know, TV ratings for NFL broadcasts have dropped an average of 20% over the past two years. That's another likely catalyst here. Here's an idea of how things have changed, it's estimated that only 1.2% of Boomers were political activists during the 60's counter-culture days. You have 33% of Boomers who say they're currently boycotting something. The difference is that the average person that's part of a movement isn't likely to be visible, for example, those quietly boycotting with their remote.
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