Buycott.com logo
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| Buycott Inc. | |
| Industry | Technology, social activism |
| Founder | Ivan Pardo |
Key people | Maceo Martinez |
| Products | Consumer advocacy software |
| Website | buycott |
Buycott.com is an Internet-based platform and smart-phone application that reads the Universal Product Codes (UPC) barcode on a product, and suggests whether a consumer should buy or avoid that product based on how well it aligns with the consumer's values and principles. The consumer joins to various Buycott campaigns to indicate their support or their opposition to various issues and topics. The app advises them about purchasing from corporate entities - and their affiliates - that endorse policies which conflict with those campaigns. The consumer can thus "vote with their wallet", and opt to purchase a competing product, or forgo the purchase altogether.[1]
As of March 2023, the latest update to the app was on the 21st of October 2016.[2] The latest social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were all also before the end of 2016.[3][4][5] The latest update to the Terms and Conditions page was in December 2015.[6]
Buycott.com was launched to encourage Corporate Social Responsibility, prior to the point of purchase, and raise awareness that consumer purchases have real-world consequences. The app has a rich database behind the web interface. Buycott claims to have a database of over 150 million product UPC tags as unique product identifiers.[7][8] The database contains all sorts of consumer products from foods to cosmetics to services such as restaurant chains and hotels. Buycott.com also queries consumer activists for scanned product information when the database is missing product descriptions or other information, each campaign's database relevancy and success is dependent upon the membership's participation.[9]
Buycott — "Buycott helps you to organize your everyday consumer spending so that it reflects your principles."
Burner figured the average supermarket shopper had no idea that buying Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft toilet paper or Dixie cups meant contributing cash to Koch Industries through its subsidiary Georgia-Pacific.
The information, however, is only as accurate as a company's public data—corporate structures and priorities change. To that end, its success will depend, in part, on users and how involved they are in staying on top of that information.
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