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boycott campaign thinks bigger activists have re-doubled their efforts to get egyptian consumers to change their habits, this time in response to the war in iraq. while street protesters have focused on us aggression and arab inaction, groups that supported earlier boycotts in support of the palestinian intifada are now also backing the anti-war cause. on march 18, for instance, the doctor’s syndicate took out an advertisement in al-ahram urging a boycott of all goods from countries that are taking part in the war on iraq. already at the beginning of the year, as war loomed closer, activists in egypt and elsewhere in the arab world had decided to re-energize a boycott that many said had fizzled out as the intifada lingered on. the new boycott campaign, which targets selected products that activists say are emblematic of american corporate power, shows how the reasons for boycotts have changed, and how successful – or, from another perspective, damaging – boycotts have been so far. “we’ve distributed a simple calendar with the slogans of the boycott and the logos of six products that we are boycotting,” explained ashraf al bayoumi, a boycott organizer and leading figure in egypt’s anti-war movement. “this campaign will be more focused, as we’re concentrating on fewer products. al bayoumi, a retired professor of chemistry from michigan state university and alexandria university, is a dual us-egyptian national and lives between washington, dc and cairo. he formerly served as the head of an observation team with the world food program in iraq, where he says he saw first-hand the damaging effects of un sanctions. al bayoumi, known for his angry and passionate diatribes against us policy in the middle east, frequently appears on egyptian, arab and international television. ironically, he gained much of his organizing experience in the united states – notably during his tenure at michigan state, where he participated in boycotts of south african goods during apartheid and a campaign against swiss confectioner nestlé. the latest boycott campaign, al bayoumi explained, was organized on a pan-arab level, with an activists conference held in damascus last january setting the standards for what products should be boycotted. “our criterion is that [the products] should be symbols of us globalization, not just be related to the war on iraq or the palestinian intifada,” he said, adding that anti-global protests should link various issues affecting different parts of the world. “we want people to boycott us products because of iraq or palestine, but also for the same reasons as people who boycott products made through child labor.” public education, or smear campaigns? the shift in tactics is telling. egypt’s boycott movement started over two years ago, and since then, local activists have built up momentum, establishing organizations such as the people’s committee in solidarity with the palestinian intifada. they have begun to make contacts with other activists around the world. through these contacts, a movement that started out being against israel’s treatment of the palestinians has started integrating into the worldwide anti-globalization movement. the calendar the boycotters have distributed shows pictures of palestinian victims of israeli repression, alongside an american flag where the stars have been replaced with a star of david. below the flag are the logos of six well-known american products – mcdonald’s restaurants, ariel detergent, lay’s potato chips, marlboro cigarettes, always tampons and coca-cola. through this message, activists hope to politically educate average egyptians – not only to support the boycott, but to understand the larger issues behind it. “the boycott campaign is the key to success,” al bayoumi said. “it resonates with the people... and it’s a political activity that the state cannot stop.” opponents of the campaign are also starting to think harder about educating the public. coca-cola products in the local market now carry a “made by egyptian hands” logo, a symbol that may soon be adopted by other multinationals with local production plants. boycott opponents – who include many government officials and prominent businessmen – say that it is harming egypt’s economy without influencing us policy. boycotting products or franchises in egypt will only affect egyptian business partners and their local employees – something, opponents say, that can only damage the economy and add to unemployment. the campaign could also be damaging egypt’s ability to attract foreign investment. anti-us boycotts – along with the bad experience of uk-based supermarket chain sainsbury’s back in 2000 and 2001 – give food for thought to other foreign companies considering investing in egypt. activists counter that the boycott can help the egyptian economy. someone choosing not to eat at mcdonald’s, for example, might opt for a local eatery instead. boycott organizers have also tried to draw attention to health and environmental issues – at least when these work in favor of their cause. during the summer of 2002, after swedish scientists linked deep-frying with cancer, some local newspapers ran articles warning of the dangers of eating fried foods. the newspapers – mostly supportive of the boycott effort – chose to concentrate on american-style fast food rather than, say, equally oily taamiya. some reports suggest that us-brand fast-food chains have experienced a surge in home-delivery orders – perhaps from customers embarrassed to be seen in the restaurants. but whether this reflects guilty consumerism or the success of home-delivery marketing campaigns is hard to determine. mcdonald’s and other chains have recently launched centralized phone numbers for cairo delivery orders. online ordering service otlob.com also continues to flourish. meanwhile, some companies have been targets of smear campaigns. at one point, coca-cola was decreed anti-islamic because its trademark logo, when viewed in a mirror, was said to resemble a sacrilegious phrase in arabic. then came the turn of ariel detergent, which suffered from being associated with israel’s hard-line prime minister ariel sharon and having a logo that looked vaguely like a star of david, israel’s national symbol. ariel changed its logo last year, adopting an elliptical symbol. later, with the us being seen as an israeli accomplice, the local american furniture changed its name to am furniture. on the business side “the boycott campaign is based on untruths,” asserted ziad mourad, a spokesperson for proctor & gamble, which manufactures ariel. “there is a lot of misinformation out there.” along with other representatives of foreign firms in egypt, he charges that boycott organizers have deliberately spread lies about companies and their products to generate public interest and outrage. ariel’s name made it an easy target – and activists were eager to capitalize on this to spread their message, even if the detergent is obviously not named after israel’s sharon. the strategy has hurt sales badly, according to industry analysts. “proctor & gamble was hit worst, and its ariel brand has lost a significant market share,” said abubakr mostafa of euromonitor international, a market analysis firm. “it once had around 40 percent of the market sales [in egypt], but it now only possesses 27 percent. this might not sound like much, but think of a market worth £e 2 billion.” but the sales ariel lost did not go to egyptian competitors. the main winners were two european companies – germany’s henkel kgaa, which makes persil, and britain’s unilever, which makes omo. although proctor & gamble had previously gained the bulk of the laundry detergent market because it had been in egypt longer, the boycott allowed these competitors to catch up. “if ariel had been the only product of its kind on the market, the boycott would have failed,” mostafa added. “but now there is an alternative.” proctor & gamble’s mourad said that he could not provide sales statistics for ariel, but he was adamant that his company “is going very strong at this time.” “if there was any impact, it was always exaggerated in the media,” he added. other us brands have been less affected. coca-cola, for instance, has increased its volume of sales in the past two years, despite being one of the main targets of the boycott campaign. the soft drink market’s dominance by two major american brands – coca-cola and pepsi cola – may explain why the campaign has had little effect. no other company has the production capacity, marketing clout or distribution networks to rival the two giants. according to informed sources, the two brands have been hurt more in egypt than in the gulf states, where the presence of large expatriate communities softens the impact. however, iran’s national zamzam cola is now being imported to saudi arabia, where over 4 million cans of the drink were sold in the first week of sales. no islamic-themed cola brand is presently available in egypt. but in any case, will further losses of sales really matter to us firms? euromonitor’s mostafa thinks not. “multinationals do not consider egypt to be a big market,” he says, “and consumer products are not a premium investment. the important investments are mostly in the energy and petroleum sector. people can’t boycott that.” morever, a significant portion of bilateral egypt-us trade takes place through the usaid program, which is even further removed from public influence. boycotts will, however, affect the local partners of multinationals and the local banks that finance them, mostafa said. exactly how much a company is losing is hard to tell, especially when the boycott coincides with a downturn in the economy. boycotters want to exaggerate how much impact they are having, while companies try to play things down to reassure their investors and maintain a good public image. but no one wants to be a target. “when a business gets boycotted,”
mostafa said, “everyone who has to do with it loses.”
issandr el amrani |
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