Corporate America's Worst Nightmare Lives In A Tiny 1BR & Has A Lop-Eared Rabbit Named Crackers

[Hissyspit]

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE80424T20120106?irpc=932

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/06/us-usa-companies-backlash-idUSTRE80424T20120106

As consumer power goes viral, company branding quakes

By Chris Taylor
Fri Jan 6, 2012 8:54am EST

(Reuters) - Corporate America's worst nightmare lives in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, loves browsing in flea markets and has a lop-eared brown and white pet rabbit named Crackers.

Meet Molly Katchpole. The 22-year-old Washington, D.C. resident has recently tangled with a couple of billion-dollar corporations, and cowed them into submission, without breaking a sweat.

Take Verizon Wireless, which had planned a $2 "convenience" charge for the privilege of paying a bill by phone or online. Katchpole, a Verizon user for eight years, was offended by the very idea that loyal customers could be penalized for paying what they owed. So she went on the website http://Change.org - organized a petition - and watched as it quickly racked up more than 165,000 signatures. As consumer outrage went viral, Verizon backpedaled within hours.

And how about Bank of America's infamous $5 monthly usage fee for debit cards? It too was kiboshed, partly thanks to another Katchpole petition and 300,000 of her outraged brethren, at a time when the Occupy Wall Street movement had been pressuring banks.

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[limpyhobbler]

1. Anybody think the $2 charge was overblown by the media to avoid covering more substantial people's

protests like OWS? Banks, corporations and billionaires are screwing us for thousands or millions of dollars, and people are really up in arms about it all over the country, standing in front of lines of cops getting beat up and sprayed and shot at, and arrested. But the media just loves focusing on this $2 convenience fee that at most costs someone $24/year. I'm not saying it isn't important; it is. But what is the relative importance of this protest over $2/month to warrant the amount of media coverage it has gotten. People are upset about the $2 but they are much more upset about much larger systemic injustices in our economic system, and they have to literally make a big scene and get shot at to get any media attention. And then when Verizon reverses its decision and drops the $2 fee, the media can act like that shows there really was justice and the protest was successful, so everybody can go on about their business.

[Speck Tater]

2. Pragmatically, some forms of protest are more effective than others.

This shows, not based on what we wish were true, but on what works in reality, that such petitions appear to be more effective than OWS.

Now maybe we wish that weren't true, but let's not do the Republican trick of ignoring reality for ideological reasons, or we'll find ourselves backing the liberal equivalent of "Abstinence Only Sex Education"; a movement we wish was effective, but isn't.

I'm not saying OWS doesn't work, I'm saying let's stay open-minded about deciding what works and what doesn't, and which tactics are most effective at promoting change. It might just break our hearts to discover that our favorite technique doesn't work, but what do we really want, results, or ineffective but ideologically pure pseudo-solutions?

[limpyhobbler]

5. yeah that's a good point.

I sign online petitions constantly.

Even more than the petition I think it's the media coverage that helps drive public opinion to put pressure on Verizon or whoever the target is. The media loved this $2/month story, because it's small potatoes and it doesn't ruffle too many corporate feathers.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. 10,000 people marched on the WH in Nov. protesting the gas pipeline, it worked.

The route design has been withdrawn and will be "studied" until 2013.

from one news report at that time:
"A crowd estimated at between 10,000 and 12,000 circled the White House, railing against the pipeline that would bring oil from Canadian tar sands to the Gulf Coast."
http://www.green.autoblog.com/2011/11/08/10-000-people-circle-white-house-against-keystone-xl-pipeline/

[truedelphi]

11. Unfortunately there were provisions inside the NDAA that might upset the

Apple cart. I am planning on making sure I have all the facts, and then doing a small piece here in "Good Reads."

[bigmonkey]

9. There are multiple levels all working at once, also.

It could be that in the atmosphere that OWS has created that these petitions are pragmatically effective. Too much focus on one thing of any kind may fail long-term. Systems adapt, just like people do, after all.

As a pragmatic example, the 50-state strategy that Howard Dean championed made otherwise losing elections into winners. Analysis that had focused on those elections, without accounting for the 50-state strategy, would have deemed some of them losers and they would had their support withdrawn à la Emmanuel.

[Speck Tater]

13. Very good point.

I'm really undecided about OWS. I'd love for it to work, and at times I think it is working. Then at other times it seems like a waste of time to me. I guess only time will tell. But in the meantime we need to working all the fronts.

[DirkGently]

14. Think that's selling OWS way short. All "effects" are not equal.

Verizon fee: $2

Changing the national conversation from "deficit reduction" to "Jobs & infrastructure":

priceless.



We've got to try everything. Online petitions can work. Protests can work. Occupations can work.

[Speck Tater]

15. Agreed. See my post #13 directly above yours. nt

[loudsue]

16. Very well said.

And said with respect.

Nice.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. I agree

The wireless employees are a pretty good group of people, and walking through the garage finding bumper stickers in support of liberals and progressives is like shooting fish in a barrel.

I for one was hoping it would persuade people to NOT use forms of payment that would incur the fee - so we could stick it to the banks.

[MindMover]

4. your cynicism has merit in this bunker.......

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/41483660@N04/6648138659/" title="cynic by pbmus, on Flickr"><img src="" width="500" height="400" alt="cynic"></a>

[limpyhobbler]

6. hahaha thank you

I did earn it this time.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Not really. Billions dealing with fancy investments are hard to grasp, but...

an extra 2 bucks on your phone bill is easy and makes the point. The hysteria of economic ruin over the 2 bucks sells papers and builds ratings, too. Might even get a few more donations to Alternet. The NY Times, WSJ, New Yorker, and others have happily documented the evils of Wall Street, but who bothers to read that stuff when you get rants from Common Dreams in your inbox?

Curiously, through all of this nobody mentioned that Verizon already charges an extra 3 bucks to pay your landline bill by phone.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

18. That is $24 that Verizon will not have to spend via Citizens United ruling...

... now mulitiply it by the number of customers they would have affected/gouged and that could run into the hundred$ of thou$and$ spent to brainwash voters.

[wandy]

10. That Lop-Eared rabbit must be stoped. SOPA to the rescue!

Ever wondered why or 'representives' wanted to vote on this 'right now' and stop this technical babble.

"The Internet is the great equalizer, and that's a beautiful thing - even if it's not positive for us," said Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey.

Wait isn't SOPA only copyright protection? Protect Disney at all costs!

"Such is the growing power of social media, which can make consumer complaints go viral and cause serious brand damage within days or even hours. While one person can't topple a company, if that person is able to assemble an army of hundreds of thousands behind them, they become a force to be reckoned with."

Make no mistake about it; SOPA is censorship. Think China. Think Iran.

"Thanks to the increasingly savvy use of tools like Facebook and Twitter, the power balance between company and customer has been tilting in the latter's favor."

Those that the people in Washingtion owe their jobs to are getting nervous.
And the 'job creators' are lobbing their representives to do something about it!

[truedelphi]

12. And our good corporations are already using US Government's threats of intimidation

To force other nations to do SOPA like legislation. Stories making the rounds today include fact that Spain is under great pressure to do what the US Government wants, or else.

[pnorman]

17. "rabbit namd cracker"

k/r

[JNelson6563]

19. Rock on Ms. Katchpole!

Bravo!

[Odin2005]

20. GO MOLLY!!!