<nettime> prospects of the etoy campaign

[Reinhold Grether <Reinhold.Grether@uni-konstanz.de>]

The L.A. hearing eToys vs etoy has been postponed till 1/10.
Maybe the right time for a short campaign analysis.


Looking back on the campaign development since 11/29 we see
an astonishing big grass roots movement building lots of small
loosely connected networks of protesters. Each newspaper article
generated a swarm of debates and brought a new bunch of people
together. This patchwork of autonomously acting individuals and
networks is by far the main campaign asset. You can also
observe a professionalization process of which etoy and rtmark
are the most noteworthy so far. Etoy and rtmark are in no way
affiliated with one another and this is a further campaign plus.
Etoy is obliged to concentrate on legal matters, rtmark picks up,
develops, improves and gives back a set of campaign tools.
The next logical step would be the building of an overall Campaign
Center managing the whole campaign information process.
<etoy.org> would be a perfect web address for such a
communication network. The main purpose of this network
would be to minimize the information inequality between the
more professionalized and the more autonomously acting
campaigners. Such a center would organize its own reports
from events like the L.A. hearing and the L.A. press conference.

On the eToys side it's easier to find liabilities than assets. Globally
they are portrayed as a rogue company. Their share value has
fallen breathtakingly (from $55 to $26). Renowned media
commentators from all over the world have called for a Boycott.
The Net community has rallied unanimously behind etoy. eToys
ostrich-like style of crisis management has angered all at once:
the markets and the press, the customers and the protesters,
the investors and the employees.

Prospects: 1) the Boycott idea will be accepted by a broad range
of real and potential customers, 2) more than a few employees 
will turn their back against a company infuriating the Net, 3) lots of
investors have lost confidence in the present management and even
the most affiliated will feel the necessity to act, 4) Toby Lenk will
not survive the crisis.

Campaign links   
http://dmoz.org/Society/Activism/Media_Activism/Culture_Jamming/etoy/


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