The power of social media: ‘I’m too pretty to do homework’ t.shirt pulled

I hope you are encouraged by this clip from the CBC Early Show about the campaign to remove a T-shirt marketed to young girls with the logo ‘"I'm too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me."

It was great to see how quickly this took off, after one woman, Lauren Todd, decided to take action, at first posting on Facebook, then launching a petition through Change.org.

Less than a day later, with 1, 600 signatures collected, JC Penney pulled the shirt from its website and issued an apology.

Here’s my favourite quote from Lauren:

“Consumers are supposed to get together and tell corporations when they are unhappy with what they are doing.”

So simple, so true, and so much at the heart of what we at Collective Shout are about. Often our campaigns begin when just one person decides to take action, then engages and mobilises others for the cause.

We’ve seen wins like the JC Penney victory too, after some of our campaigns have gone viral. I think my favourite was when Harvey Norman pulled an offensive radio ad (combining Santa, lap dancing and children) after a Twitter storm of a mere four hours on a Sunday afternoon.

In the same week, Myer removed ‘Betsy the bottle opening doll’ (the bottle was opened via the doll’s backside) after a protest lasting a mere 24 hours.

New forms of social media have enabled us to reach large numbers of people quickly. I wonder some days how we ran campaigns without it!

If you haven’t already signed up to Collective Shout, please do so here . You can also sign up to our Facebook here

We will be working more closely with Change.org which has just opened operations in Australia. Stand by for more.

See also: ‘Pretty’s got nothing to do with it’