That is some useful information. It seems like what you’re saying is that these campaigns really involve three different groups:
(a) the “inner circle” of 10-100 activists that are organizing the campaign,
(b) some larger number of supporters that are waiting in the wings to execute the threatened protests if the original demands aren’t met,
(c) the “audience” of the protests—i.e. this is the general public who will be driven away from the target in response to the protests.
And it’s really only group (c) that needs to be big enough as a fraction of the target’s total business that the target finds it worth listening to.
Are there any good sources that go into more detail about how these kind of campaigns work? (I’m interested in this in general, not just in relation to this specific post)
That’s an interesting way to think about it! Unfortunately this is where the limits of my knowledge about the animal-welfare side of EA kick in, but you could probably find more info about these progest campaigns by searching some animal-welfare-related tags here on the Forum, or going to the sites of groups like Animal Ask or Hive that do ongoing work coordinating the field of animal activists, or by finding articles / podcast interviews with Lewis Bollard, who is the head grantmaker for this stuff at Open Philanthropy / Coefficient Giving, and has been thinking about the strategy of cage-free campaigns and related efforts for a very long time.
That is some useful information. It seems like what you’re saying is that these campaigns really involve three different groups:
(a) the “inner circle” of 10-100 activists that are organizing the campaign,
(b) some larger number of supporters that are waiting in the wings to execute the threatened protests if the original demands aren’t met,
(c) the “audience” of the protests—i.e. this is the general public who will be driven away from the target in response to the protests.
And it’s really only group (c) that needs to be big enough as a fraction of the target’s total business that the target finds it worth listening to.
Are there any good sources that go into more detail about how these kind of campaigns work? (I’m interested in this in general, not just in relation to this specific post)
That’s an interesting way to think about it! Unfortunately this is where the limits of my knowledge about the animal-welfare side of EA kick in, but you could probably find more info about these progest campaigns by searching some animal-welfare-related tags here on the Forum, or going to the sites of groups like Animal Ask or Hive that do ongoing work coordinating the field of animal activists, or by finding articles / podcast interviews with Lewis Bollard, who is the head grantmaker for this stuff at Open Philanthropy / Coefficient Giving, and has been thinking about the strategy of cage-free campaigns and related efforts for a very long time.