History of Successful Boycotts

Campaigners have long used boycotting as a tactic to help them achieve their goals. It’s helped create progress around issues like racial justice, human rights and fair treatment of other animals.

This list contains examples of companies changing their practices following a boycott campaign. However, it’s worth noting that companies rarely confirm whether their decisions to change their activities were a direct result of campaigners’ efforts.

Historical boycotts

Boycotting as a campaigning technique has a long history.

One of the earliest examples of a successful campaign was the boycott in England of sugar produced by slaves. In 1791, after Parliament refused to abolish slavery, thousands of pamphlets were printed encouraging the boycott. Sales of sugar dropped by between a third and a half. By contrast sales of Indian sugar, untainted by slavery, rose tenfold in two years. In an early example of fair trade, shops began selling sugar guaranteed to have been produced by 'free men'.

Perhaps the most famous boycott was against South Africa in opposition to the apartheid. South African exiles and their supporters called for a boycott of products from South Africa in 1959 – in protest against the racial segregation enforced by white colonial politicians and discrimination and violence against Black people in the country. The boycott initially focused on fruit and vegetables, but later targeted chains like Marks & Spencer and Next – causing some companies to pull South African products from their shelves. For the next 35 years, the boycott was a central part of the anti-apartheid campaign. After decades of grassroots organising – as well as pressure from international leaders – apartheid was ended in 1994.

The Alabama bus boycott is another famous historical example. In 1955 Rosa Parks refused a bus driver's order to leave a row of four seats in the "colored" section and move to the back of the bus after the white section had filled up. Her defiance sparked a successful boycott of buses in the area, with residents instead carpooling, riding in Black-owned cabs, or walking, some as far as 20 miles. It caused the bus company's profits to crash, as dozens of public buses stood idle for months. The company lost between 30,000 and 40,000 bus fares each day during the boycott. 

Recent examples of successful boycott campaigns

The boycotts listed below are presented in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first.

Sabra boycott success – November 2024

In the US, the brand Sabra hummus was owned 50/50 by PepsiCo and The Strauss Group. The Strauss Group is Israel's second biggest food company and according to the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement it "provides financial support to the Israeli Defense Forces. Palestinian rights campaigners called for a boycott of Sabra since at least 2011. In November 2024 following an intensified period of campaigning against the brand, it was announced that The Strauss Group was selling its stake in Sabra, leaving PepsiCo as the sole owner of the Sabra hummus brand. 

This appears to be a significant milestone/ partial boycott campaign success. However, PepsiCo also owns Sodastream which is subject to a BDS boycott too. It's worth noting that in the UK Sabra was not owned by Sabra/PepsiCo, but instead by Osem Ltd, an Israeli company which is ultimately owned by Nestle. As Nestle faces several boycott calls, Sabra hummus still features on our list of active boycotts. 

AXA boycott success – August 2024

The Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid coalition called for a boycott of AXA over its investments in Israeli banks and Elbit Systems (Israel's largest weapons manufacturer) since at least 2019. According to the BDS movement, over 10,000 people and 230 organisations have signed the pledge to boycott AXA. Among the campaign's activities include holding an AXA Global Day of Action on 25 April 2022, seeing supporters globally contacting AXA Customer Services to demand the company end its complicity in Israeli apartheid. 

On 21 August 2024 the Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid coalition shared the news that AXA had sold its investments in all major Israeli banks and Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military company. While a major milestone for the campaign, it continues to call for a boycott of the company until it fully divests from other complicit companies, and as such AXA still features on our list of active boycotts. 

Barclays boycott success – June 2024

Barclays invests over £1bn in arms companies supplying Israel with weapons and military technology. The company’s sponsorship of major music festivals including Download, Latitude, and Isle of Wight was cancelled in June after protests by artists and fans. A spokesperson for Barclays told the Guardian, “Barclays was asked and has agreed to suspend participation in the remaining Live Nation festivals in 2024.

Pret boycott success – May 2024

According to the UK activist organisation Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), in 2022, coffee chain Pret signed a franchise agreement with Israel-based companies and committed to opening 40 stores in Israel over the next decade. In 2024 PSC threatened a boycott of Pret, arguing that “to invest in Israel as it conducts a genocide in Gaza and operates a system of apartheid over all Palestinians was unjustifiable and reprehensible.”

In June 2024 the Grocer reported that Pret has gone back on this agreement, worth millions of pounds, and would not open stores in Israel. Pret cited as the cause for its cancellation of the contract “ongoing travel restrictions” preventing it from conducting the checks and training needed to set Pret up in a new market.

Baillie Gifford boycott success – May 2024

Scotland-based investment firm Baillie Gifford was dropped as a sponsor by multiple arts and literary events in May over concerns that its activities are linked to Palestinian human rights abuses. In 2023 the firm was listed as one of the top 50 European investors in illegal Israeli settlements. Baillie Gifford has investments in companies linked to the Israeli state and illegal settlements, including a travel company, construction company, and US tech company that has Israeli subsidiaries.

Over 700 authors, from Naomi Klein to Sally Rooney, signed a statement by Fossil Free Books (FFB) demanding that Baillie Gifford cease its investments in fossil fuels and companies that profit from "Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide" and calling for a boycott of the company until that happened. The company’s sponsorship of several literary festivals including the Hay Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, and book festivals in Borders, Wimbledon, Cheltenham, Cambridge, Stratford, Wigtown, and Henley festivals were cancelled.

Russia boycott success – April 2024

The Russia boycott gained faster brand buy-in than perhaps any boycott campaign in history. To date, over 1,000 brands have curtailed operations in Russia, from Airbnb to Blackrock and Sainsbury’s.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on March 7th 2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for an international “boycott of Russian exports, in particular the rejection of oil and oil products from Russia.” Subsequently, Ukraine’s Culture Minister called for a boycott of Russia in December 2022. The Yale School of Management continues to track companies that are still operating in Russia. 

Twitter/X boycott success – January 2024

Twitter/X has lost half its advertising revenue since Musk’s takeover in 2022, with over 500 advertisers stopping spending on the platform. In 2022, the coalition 'Stop Toxic Twitter', composed of around 60 organisations, wrote an open letter asking Twitter’s top 20 advertisers to "cease all advertising on Twitter globally" while the platform failed to take the increase in harmful and inaccurate content seriously, for example by moderating more thoroughly to reduce the amount of these posts on the site.

Read more about other boycott calls of X/Twitter and Tesla.

Puma boycott success – December 2023

The Boycott Puma campaign was launched by Palestinian athletes in 2018 after 200 Palestinian sports clubs sent a letter to the company urging it to end its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association (IFA). The IFA includes teams based in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories. In December 2023, Puma announced it would not renew its sponsorship of the Israeli Football Association. According to the BDS movement, "Over the course of the 5-year campaign, groups around the world participated in numerous global days of action and occupied PUMA offices and shops. Sports teams, athletes, artists, ended contracts with PUMA and retailers removed its products from their stores... We thank the many groups around the world that worked tirelessly and relentlessly to force PUMA to end its complicity with Israel’s apartheid regime and in its Gaza genocide."

Read more about the Puma / Israel boycott in our article.

Klook boycott success – August 2023

Global travel company Klook published an animal welfare policy and committed to no longer selling tickets to circuses, shows, performances and photo experiences that featured animals. This followed a boycott campaign by the organisation World Animal Protection (WAP) over the sale of ‘cruel’ wildlife attractions by companies including Klook. WAP said "Though the policy is not perfect, this is a huge win toward ending wildlife cruelty in the tourism industry!”

G4S boycott success – June 2023

The BDS campaign against G4S was launched by Palestinian prisoners’ rights and human rights organisations in 2012. G4S provided services to prisons that held Palestinian political prisoners without trial, who were subject to torture. It also provided various types of services or support to illegal Israeli settlements, the apartheid wall, the Israeli military and police academy. 

The campaign pressure led to high profile divestment from G4S by the Church of Sweden, the United Methodist Church, the world’s largest philanthropic organisation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a Kuwaiti investment fund, UN agencies, trade unions, universities, restaurants and more.

In 2016 G4S divested from Israel's prison system, military checkpoints and illegal settlements which campaigners say was a result of this pressure. It still however held shares in Policity, Israel’s police academy. G4S finally made the commitment in June 2023 to sell these shares, and the BDS movement claims this was linked to pressure from shareholders about Palestinian human rights.

House of Fraser boycott success – October 2022

According to animal rights group Peta, House of Fraser decided to ban the sale of fur across all its brands including Flannels and Sports Direct in October 2022. The campaign group had called for a boycott of the brand, which used fur including from racoons and rabbits, since 2020. Four Paws UK and Humane Society International also supported the campaign, and examples of campaign activities include activists singing “12 Days of Cruelty” outside a store front at Christmas and over 150,000 people calling on the company to drop fur.

Pillsbury boycott success – June 2022

General Mills (which owns brands including Pillsbury) announced it was selling its stake in a company based in an illegal Israeli settlement. The campaign group American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) called for a boycott of Pillsbury in 2020 due to its operating in the Israeli settlement of Atarot, and the UN named the company in its list of companies in violation of Palestinian rights in February 2020. 

Air France boycott success – June 2022

Animal rights campaign group Peta announced that Air France would ban the transport of monkeys as soon as its existing contract ended, following a campaign that spanned 10 years. Peta began the boycott call in 2012, and it continued up until 2022 when Air France was the only known major European airline still shipping monkeys to laboratories for experimentation, on journeys that could last over 30 hours.

The campaign involved demonstrations around the globe, on-flight protests, discussions with the company’s leadership, shareholder activism, disruption of executives’ speeches, and bold advertisements like billboards at airports. Celebrities from Dr Jane Goodall to Peter Gabriel got behind the campaign.

LGBT+ ‘Safe To Be Me’ conference boycott success – April 2022

The first ever international LGBT+ conference organised by the UK government was cancelled after more than 100 organisations committed to boycotting the ‘Safe To Be Me’ event. This came after the UK government announced that a conversion therapy ban it had promised would exclude conversion therapy for transgender people, despite campaigners having called for it to include conversion therapy about both sexual orientation and gender identity.

AXA boycott success – January 2022

In January 2021 Hunt Saboteurs UK called for a boycott of AXA for providing legal fee insurance to The Hunting Office (the body responsible for the administration of hunting across the UK). AXA’s policy covered Hunting Act offences, and violence towards hunt saboteurs. When members of hunts were arrested, interviewed by the police or had to attend court, their legal costs were covered by AXA.

According to one of the boycott campaign’s organisers, many AXA customers were “horrified” to discover what their insurance company was involved in. Hundreds of people committed to ending their insurance policies with AXA. Demonstrations were held across the country highlighting AXA's involvement in hunting, and AXA’s social media channels were “bombarded by disgusted customers”.

In January 2022, the insurance company tweeted to say that AXA UK&I did “not provide insurance to The Hunting Office.” HuntSabs responded, “Could it be that @axainsurance have ditched the hunts?”

It looks like this campaign was a success.

Swatch boycott success – December 2021

Harry Winston, owned by Swatch, announced it would no longer source gemstones from its suppliers that have Burmese origins, following a boycott campaign by the human rights group the International Campaign for the Rohingya since June 2021.

The International Campaign for the Rohingya claimed that the Myanmar military profited from Burma’s gemstone industry. As part of the campaign, activists posing as customers made appointments at the company’s stores requesting to see jewellery containing rubies, before explaining that they would never shop there as long as it bought gems that funded the Myanmar military. 

Harry Winston’s announcement was made on the same day that the campaign group, alongside No Business with Genocide, handed the company a petition with over 25,000 signatures demanding it cut ties with Burmese gemstones.

Ben & Jerry’s boycott success – July 2021

In July 2021 after nearly 10 years of campaigning by Palestinian human rights activists, Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop selling ice cream in grocery stores in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. It stated, “We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

Campaign group Vermonters for Justice in Palestine (VTJP) spearheaded the boycott call. The campaign involved meetings with Ben & Jerry’s management, appeals to recipients of Ben & Jerry’s Foundation grant, and petitions.

However, shortly after this parent company Unilever overruled Ben & Jerry’s decision, selling the ice cream brand’s business interests in Israel to the Israeli licensee, meaning sales would continue (albeit only under its Hebrew and Arabic names). 

Nonetheless, the boycott call, and Ben & Jerry’s attempts to comply with it, still generated major headlines and shows it had a lot of impact. Read more in our separate feature on Ben and Jerry's.

Canada Goose boycott success? – June 2021

Canada Goose announced it would stop buying fur by the end of 2021 and stop using it in products by the end of 2022. Animal rights organisation Peta had called on the brand to drop fur since at least 2006, and launched a full scale boycott campaign in 2016, incorporating strategies like exposes, celebrity endorsements and lawsuit threats. 

However, a Fashion United report showed that Canada Goose continued to sell fur products in 2024. 

News UK boycott success – April 2021

In early 2021 thousands of #StopFundingHate supporters urged supermarkets, banks and phone companies not to advertise with two new proposed ‘Fox news style’ TV channels in Britain that would showcase divisive media content. It was announced in April that one of these channels, set to be called ‘News UK’, was not commercially viable and therefore would not go ahead. 

However GB News, the second proposed channel headed by Andrew Neil, launched in June 2021, which has since faced numerous accusations of breaches of impartiality.

Fortnum & Mason boycott success – February 2021

Following a decade-long PETA campaign, Fortnum & Mason stopped selling foie gras in February 2021.

Foie gras is a 'luxury' food, made from the liver of geese or ducks who are specially fattened through the force-feeding of corn using a tube. Their livers swell up to ten times their normal size, pressing against the birds’ lungs and causing difficulty breathing. 

PETA says the campaign involved thousands of letters, adverts on the London Underground, and colourful protests (such as a giant ‘goose’ crashing into the shop front, with a crime scene then set up around it with chalk outlines of dead geese). Caroline Lucas, Bill Oddie, Twiggy and other high profile figures backed the campaign since its inception. Fortnum & Mason is a high-end department store with sites across London and Hong Kong, and has worldwide stockists. 

Kirin boycott success – February 2021 

On 5 February 2021, Kirin announced it would terminate its partnership with the business Myanmar Economic Holdings Public Company Limited, a company that was controlled by and for the benefit of the Burmese military.

Kirin was criticised for years for its ties with the Myanmar military, having maintained partnerships with state entities following the killings of thousands of Muslim-minority Rohingya people. The International Campaign for the Rohingya (IRC) called for a boycott of Kirin Group.

Read more in our feature article on Kirin and the Myanmar boycott.

L’Oreal boycott success – June 2020

The model Munroe Bergdorf called for a boycott of L’Oreal in June 2020, claiming that her contract with the company was terminated in 2017 after she discussed “racial violence of white people” on social media. During the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in summer 2020, L’Oreal made statements in support of anti-racist protests and Bergdorf highlighted the hypocrisy of this. The brand expressed regret for its actions and she was invited to become a consultant on L’Oreal’s UK diversity and inclusion board. 

Dogs4Us boycott success – April 2020

In 2020, Lucy’s Law was introduced in England, the results of many years of campaigning by a range of animal rights organisations, which put an end to the sale of puppies in pet shops. 

In 2016 a BBC Panorama exposed that a puppy warehouse called Dogs4Us was buying from cruel puppy farms and selling the dogs to the public. A campaign group launched called ‘Boycott Dogs4Us’, which held protests outside of Parliament, gained support from politicians, and called for a ban of the sale of puppies in pet shops. The law meant companies like Dogs4Us could no longer sell puppies to be sold in pet shops. 

Constellation Brands boycott success – March 2020

In March 2020, Mexico’s president cancelled the construction permits and water rights held by brewing company Constellation Brands. The campaign group Mexicali Resiste had called for a boycott of Constellation Brands in 2018, after it gained access to the desert region’s drinking-water supply in what the campaign group called “shady, undocumented” deals.

The company’s beer factory was predicted to drain up to 20% of the city’s annual water supply. The government’s decision to cancel the water rights and construction permits was seen as a victory for grassroots campaigners. According to L.A.Taco, a Los Angeles news platform, the government decision caused Constellation Brands’ stock to plummet 11 percent.

Dorchester Collection boycott success – May 2019

After Brunei announced plans to introduce laws which result in the death penalty for those convicted of having anal sex, a campaign against it began including a boycott of Dorchester Collection, a chain of hotels owned by the country’s Sultan. Celebrities such as Elton John and George Clooney called for boycotts of the hotel chain, and large companies like JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank told staff to avoid Brunei-owned hotels. 

According to The Independent, “in a rare response to criticism levied at the country, the sultan said the death penalty would not be imposed” for anal sex in the new laws’ implementation.

Elbit boycott success – December 2018

In December 2018, HSBC announced that it had fully divested from the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, after being targeted by activists. Read more in our separate article about HSBC and Israeli arms.

Burberry boycott success – September 2018

In September 2018, Burberry announced that it would join Armani, Versace, Gucci, Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, and others in banning fur after a long-running boycott campaign from animal rights group PETA.

Merlin Entertainment boycott success – July 2018

Freedom for Animals launched a campaign in 2014 titled ‘Sea Lies’, which called for a boycott of all Merlin Entertainment brands due to their treatment of captive animals in their aquariums. In particular it called for the company to retire its whales. 

According to the campaign’s 2013 investigation, Sea Life aquariums took animals from the wild to populate its aquariums, and its parent company Merlin was found to have purchased other aquariums that held dolphins or whales in confined conditions. After intense public pressure, in July 2018, Sea Life announced it was building a beluga whale sanctuary in Iceland for the whales.

Trump boycott success – July 2018

Trump was the target of the Grab Your Wallet campaign, which called for a boycott of Trump and companies supporting him over his approach to issues like climate change and discrimination. According to the campaign website the campaign was “credited with over 70 large companies cutting financial ties with the Trump administration” including Nordstrom, Disney and Pepsi. The boycott call is said to have contributed significantly to Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand closing down. The boycott call ended in November 2020.

NRA boycott success – February 2018

Multiple companies cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA), following the proliferation of a #BoycottNRA hashtag on social media. This came after the association called for teachers to be armed and spoke out against student gun control activists, in the wake of a high school shooting. Successes included:

• Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Hertz, Budget, Avis, Best Western and Wyndham Hotels all stated that they would no longer offer discounts or other special offers for NRA members. 
• The insurer Chubb dropped cover for NRA Carry Guard insurance.
• Enterprise Rent–A–Car announced that it was severing ties.
• First National Bank of Omaha stated that it would end a Visa credit card it offered with NRA branding.

The Body Shop boycott success – January 2018

Campaign group Naturewatch called for a boycott of L’Oreal in 2000 over its use of ingredients tested on animals, and when The Body Shop was bought by L’Oreal in 2006 the boycott extended to The Body Shop, too. 

In 2017 The Body Shop was sold again, to the firm Natura, which after “hundreds of letters” confirmed that it had implemented a “fixed cut-off date animal testing policy, the gold standard of cruelty-free policies.” Naturewatch ended the boycott call officially in January 2018. 

Read more about the Body Shop boycott in our separate article.

Myanmar gemstones boycott success – December 2017

Cartier pledged to stop buying gems from Myanmar in December 2017. Campaign organisations SumofUS and The International Campaign for the Rohingya ran a campaign calling for jewellers like Cartier to boycott gemstones mined in Myanmar, which fuelled the country’s military responsible for attacks on communities of Rohingya Muslims in the country.

Read more about if there should be a wider boycott of Myanmar.

Boots boycott success – November 2017

Boots dropped the price of its own-brand emergency contraceptive pill, after the British Pregnancy Advisory Service called for a boycott of the company because of high prices. Boots had previously said that it would not drop the price in line with other retailers, because it did not 'want to be accused of incentivising inappropriate use'. 

Seaworld boycott success – March 2016

In March 2016, Seaworld announced it would end all orca breeding programmes, making that generation of captive orcas the last to be kept in SeaWorld's tanks. They also said they would phase out orca whale shows in all the parks. 

Animal rights group Peta and celebrities including Harry Styles called for a boycott of Seaworld. In the years leading up to its end to orca breeding, attendance at San Diego SeaWorld dropped 17% and shares fell 51%, linked to the release of the document ‘Blackfish’ discussing orcas at SeaLife. 

Banks linked to Israeli settlements boycott success – January 2016

The United Methodist Church, a Protestant denomination that numbered over seven million members, said it would not invest in five banks that were financing Israeli settlement activity. The five banks boycotted by the church's pension board were:

• Bank Hapoalim
• Bank Leumi
• First International Bank of Israel
• Israel Discount Bank
• Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot

In January 2014 the biggest Dutch pension fund, PGGM, had also announced it would withdraw its investments from Israel’s five largest banks because of their links to settlements.

Sodastream boycott success – September 2015

Sodastream faced a global boycott call from the BDS movement in September 2015, due to owning a factory in an illegally occupied Israeli settlement on Palestinian land. After intense public pressure Sodastream closed this factory. 

However, following this success, BDS clarified that it continues to call for a boycott of Sodastream, stating “SodaStream is an Israeli company that is actively complicit in Israel's policy of displacing the indigenous Bedouin-Palestinian citizens of present-day Israel in the Naqab (Negev) and has a long history of racial discrimination against Palestinian workers.”

Find alternatives to Sodastream.

BDS boycott success – July 2015

The United Church of Christ, a Protestant denomination in the USA with around a million members, approved an Israel divestment resolution in July 2015 with a vote of 508-124 in favour. Reverend James Moos, executive minister of UCC Wider Church Ministries and co-executive of Global Ministries, said the vote was representative of the church’s commitment to peace in the Middle East.

Nestle boycott success – October 2014

Nestlé faces the world’s longest running boycott call. In 1974, Nestlé baby milk became the subject of an international scandal with the publication of War on Want’s ‘The Baby Killer’, which claimed that it was discouraging breastfeeding through its promotion of breast milk substitutes.

Baby Milk Action first called a boycott of Nestlé in 1977, and since then the global boycott campaign has targeted the company over the aggressive sale and marketing of formula to new mothers.

In 2014 Nestlé agreed to stop promoting its baby-milk formula as the ‘natural start’, after pressure from the Baby Milk Action boycott campaign. Read more in our feature about Nestlé and the boycott campaign.

Babybel boycott success – August 2012

Mini Babybel offered an apology and withdrew a number of products after disability campaigners in France called for a boycott of their cheese after the company ran a marketing campaign that used the phrase ‘Mentally ill holidays’. 

Ahava boycott success – January 2012

DaitoCrea, the Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories agent in Japan, announced it would no longer be distributing Ahava products. According to the BDS Movement the cosmetics firm AHAVA has a factory and visitors centre in an illegal Israeli settlement on Palestinian land. 

According to campaigners, the decision was the “direct result of a concerted campaign by the Palestine Forum Japan starting in 2010” to educate DaitoCrea and Japanese consumers about Ahava’s practices.

Johnson & Johnson boycott success – November 2011

Johnson & Johnson stated that it was phasing out formaldehyde-releasing preservatives in its baby products, following a boycott campaign by an international coalition of health and environmental groups. An NBC news article stated “the coalition is urging consumers to boycott Johnson & Johnson baby products until the company agrees to remove the chemicals from its baby products sold around the world.”

Fruit of the Loom boycott success – November 2009

In 2009 the company Russell Athletic, owner of the clothing brand Fruit of the Loom, shut down one of its Honduran factories soon after workers there had unionised. The company made lots of clothing merchandise for universities such as T-shirts and sweatshirts bearing the university names and logos.

More than 100 universities in the US, UK and Canada joined a boycott, dropping their licensing deals with the company – often following “pressure from [student campaign group] United Students Against Sweatshops”. According to People and Planet, this was the largest garment boycott campaign in history. Columbia University’s magazine says it pushed the company to the bargaining table, resulting in the factory reopening and workers getting their jobs back. 

Burma tourism boycott success – December 2005

Burma Campaign UK announced that sustained pressure had led to Austrian Airlines, Eastravel and FromersGuides joining the growing exodus of companies ending their promotion of tourism to Burma. Burma Campaign UK stated “Burma’s regime claims it earns $100 million a year from tourism. It spends around 50 percent of its budget on the military… In no other country are human rights abuses and tourism so closely linked”.

Burma boycott success – March 2005

In March 2005, insurance company Aon Corporation informed the Burma Campaign UK it intended to terminate all business in Burma. The company had appeared on the Burma Campaign's ‘Dirty List’ of companies directly or indirectly funding the regime in Burma. Campaigners argued that insurance companies were helping to keep the military in power, and so increasing poverty in Burma. Burma Campaign UK stated “Burma’s democracy movement has called on companies not to invest in Burma, pointing to the fact that foreign investment and trade has enriched the regime, but not benefited most ordinary Burmese people.”

Burma boycott success – November 2003

In November 2003, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) confirmed its decision to pull out of Burma. The company had featured on Burma Campaign UK's boycott list of companies directly or indirectly funding the regime in Burma.

Nestle boycott success – May 2003

Nestlé announced that it would stop promoting complementary baby foods from before 6 months of age, nine years after The World Health Assembly adopted the same Resolution in 1994, during a week of campaigning by the Baby Milk Action Boycott. 

Read more in our feature about Nestlé and the boycott campaign.

Mitsubishi boycott success – March 2000

In March 2000, Mitsubishi announced it was pulling out of an industrial salt project in Mexico for environmental reasons. The project to extract salt from sea water in evaporation ponds was to be located in a World Heritage Site, the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve. Potentially covering 116 square miles, and  threatened a breeding ground for whales and other endangered species. 

A 'Mitsubishi: Don't Buy It' campaign was launched, more than 40 Californian cities passed resolutions condemning the company, and over 700,000 letters of objection were sent. Homero Aridjis, one of the campaign's leaders was reported as saying: "It has been a tough fight for five years with one of the richest corporations in the world and the Mexican government."

Nike boycott success – February 2001

Throughout the 1990s Nike faced a significant popular boycott following reports of widespread labour exploitation at its factories. Protests outside its stores resulted in sales plummeting. Over the decades, Nike has transformed from denying worker exploitation in its supply chain to carrying out audits and taking more responsibility for the rights of workers making its products.

However, it continues to deny its garment workers a living wage. A 2018 report by Clean Clothes Campaign claimed that factory workers today receive even less of Nike's profits than they did in the 1990s. The ‘Foul Play’ report claims that “the share of these costs that ends up in a worker’s pocket is now a staggering 30% less than in the early 1990s.”