The Facebook boycott campaign

If you're a Facebook shareholder, you've probably heard about the Facebook boycott campaign that's going on these days.

A lot of companies like Unilever, Coke, Hershey, Starbucks and many others have said publicly that they wanted to pause their ads on Facebook because of racism and violence on social medias.

Well, if you think that the only reason why they pause their publicity is mean things said on Facebook, you've been fooled.

In an economic crisis, when sales drop a lot, one of the first things that companies cut is publicity.

They now have a great occasion to cut these costs for a "good" reason: they can associate to a social movement against racism. So, they can turn that economic decision into something virtuous.

Because, with all it's imperfections, Facebook (and Instagram) is not a creation for haters and ku klux klan. It's one of the best ways to reach millions and even billions of people for companies. Who can really stay away from that kind of company to reach consumers? Nobody.

Unilever, Coke and Hershey want one thing more than any others: sell their stuff, more and more every year. After that, they want to preserve their image. And they want to look as virtuous as possible simply because not any company can afford to not look virtuous.

That's, in my view, the only two reasons behind the Facebook boycott campaign: cutting the costs and try to look virtuous.

I'd be curious to see how employees are treated in these virtuous companies. Because virtue is not only saying that you're against racism. It's also to respect your employees and your consumers on a daily basis.