"A famous poet **branded tea a “blood-sweeten’d beverage,” and sales plummeted**. "Suddenly, one of [[England]]’s most widespread cultural practices was connected to heinous cruelty. Turning teatime into a political act, [[Clarkson]] **leveraged the publicity into the first effective consumer boycotts**. Entire towns across [[England]] gave up sugar in protest, hundreds of thousands of people stopped taking afternoon tea— or switched to green tea instead. And it was more than just virtue signaling, as **companies began to change their labor practices in response, announcing in their advertisements that their sugar was “produced by the labor of FREEMEN**.” --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[slavery]], [[virtue-signalling]], [[branding]], [[marketing]], [[public-relations]] [[consumer-boycotts]], **Source** -- [[202409180127 - B - Right Thing, Right Now]]