Economic Blackout
No one is immune to the economic devastation the Trump Administration is wreaking on our country. For 10 months, we have watched law after law be broken. The government has been shut down for 31 days and counting. As of this writing, the Republicans have been AWOL for 6 weeks.
In their wake, SNAP benefits are about to disappear for 42 million Americans. According to the KFF, “22 million out of 24 million [insurance] marketplace enrollees currently receive a tax credit.” If that tax credit goes away, their premiums will more than double. Spend any time on social media and you will hear stories of monthly insurance payments going up 4-fold.
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen companies lay off thousands of workers, including Amazon and big tech companies—you know, those STEM jobs that were supposed to be ultra-secure. Some are blaming AI. Truth is, it isn’t AI directly. It is the cost of chips to run AI. (See this TikTok for an in-depth explanation.)
What does this have to do with marketing?
People are fed up, broke, or both. Millions of people marched in the No Kings protests in October to demonstrate their anger and frustration. That frustration and feeling of solidarity is being channeled toward the Economic Blackout slated to take place from November 25 to December 2—a time period covering Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Boycotts against individual companies have been growing since early in the year.
People started protesting and boycotting Tesla in February in response to Musk’s connection to DOGE. By June Tesla sales were in freefall, and the company had lost close to $380 billion in market value.
More recently, Disney has felt the wrath of public anger over the firing of Jimmy Kimmel on September 17, 2025. Between September 18 and 20, an “estimated 500,000 Disney accounts were cancelled…with experts estimating losses between $1.5 billion and $4 billion. Disney's market value declined by approximately $3.87 billion.” Disney announced on September 22nd, that Kimmel would be returning to late-night TV.
Two key learnings from these effective boycotts: 1) people can easily change their shopping habits, and 2) boycotts can be coordinated quickly.
Will the Economic Blackout be effective? There are arguments for and against. Some people say that only targeted company boycotts, like the ones listed above, can be effective. There is truth to that, and not every company can be hurt by a consumer boycott. Amazon is a good example. While the company generates most of its revenue from online sales, it earns most of its profit from its business-to-business (B2B) Amazon Web Services (AWS) business. On the other hand, consumers have had practice boycotting over the last 10 months. They are also angry and motivated to fight back in the one way they feel like they still have power. Finally, some will be passively boycotting, simply because they have no money to spend because of the actions of the current administration.
I don’t have a crystal ball, but my money is on consumers…and the small businesses where they will be shopping.