Fwd: Carrotmob!

[Omar Khan]

hey all,

not sure how many of you have heard of carrot mobs. anyway, idea explained below

With Carrotmob, consumers can organize themselves, ask companies to compete at who will make the biggest change, and when a company does what they want, consumers can reward that company with millions of dollars in revenue and marketing value. Carrotmobuses the "carrot" to change companies rather than the "stick". It's the opposite of a boycott.

relevant for this group since they are focusing on energy efficiency when mobbing businesses. see more details in the email below or the presentation here

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1195560/Carrotmob%20low-res.pdf

they are looking to grow.

i spoke with my brother about the mobs, since he was tangentially involved in a mob in toronto. a concern was the excessive consumerism (unneeded purchasing) that went on during a "mob" of the business that decided to participate. but i suspect many of the items purchased were actually going to be bought elsewhere.

omar

From: Brent Schulkin <brent@carrotmob.org>

Date: September 21, 2010 2:12:04 PM PDT

It's really hard to get big companies to make climate-friendly changes. The basic problem: "Many corporations will do anything for money." We started Carrotmob to promote a simple solution to this problem: "Many corporations will do anything for money."

With Carrotmob, consumers can organize themselves, ask companies to compete at who will make the biggest change, and when a company does what they want, consumers can reward that company with millions of dollars in revenue and marketing value. Carrotmobuses the "carrot" to change companies rather than the "stick". It's the opposite of a boycott.

This is a proven movement which has already had 93 small campaigns around the world, nearly all of them focused on energy efficiency. With the right funding, the right management, and a little bit of luck, we can build a vast global network able to do what governments can't or won't do: compel the largest consumer-facing businesses in the world to make the deep changes needed to fight climate change, and simultaneously crowdsource the financing for those changes.

We are seeking additional donors so we can build technology to scale our work, and empower our organizers around the world.

Carrotmob is a type of consumer activism in which businesses compete at how socially responsible they can be, and then a network of consumers spends money to support whichever business makes the strongest offer.

[Eric Williams]

I'll second that.  I've read into it and watched all the videos - seems pretty legit.  There may be some surface conspicuous consumption, but I think the idea is that you, as you said Omar, get all the stuff you would ordinarily...just from someone who has agreed to make the changes.  I have a friend who participated in one; i hear only good things.

I actually got a little excited and thought you were organizing one!

Eric

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