‘Legitimate . . . Activism’ : PRACTICAL VIEW

Today’s boycotts have a new face, says Helen Goss.

“They are a legitimate form of consumer activism,” says Goss, public information manager for the city of West Hollywood, known for its activism. She and Debra Miller of Florida International University are preparing an issue paper on boycotts for the 15,400-member Public Relations Society of America.

Several factors have changed the conduct of and response to boycotts, they’ve found, including:

* The technological explosion. Corporations have historically dominated media access, but faxes and telephones have opened the press to everyone. Boycotts can be media events.

* A growing reluctance among consumers to buy products from companies whose corporate values they oppose--boycotting, for example, companies that support South Africa’s government or manufacture nuclear weapons.

* Although private industry is the traditional boycott target, governments are equally vulnerable. “Arizona is a prime example. It lost millions in tourism because the state Legislature rejected a Martin Luther King Day,” says Goss. (The holiday was approved by voters last month, a move attributed, in part, to the boycott.)

* Quicker response to a boycott within organizations where women and minorities are included in corporate decision-making.