Nov 10, 2025

Starving the beast - THE BLACK FRIDAY BLACKOUT

We are living in strange times. Navigating the social media platforms with a queer and political business and using them to market an LGBTQ sex-positive business has its challenges. I have just gotten off Cape Cod for the winter and am planning the holiday shopping season with the agency that assists with e-mail and social media marketing.

Though the season in Provincetown had its challenges, Adam's Nest managed to pull off a decent season. The online business has been a bit more challenging; I'd read about the downplaying of LGBTQ and political content, and a quick look at the graph showing our organic reach during the year confirmed what we were experiencing anecdotally.

The Bay Area Reporter had an article that specifically addressed what many small, LGBTQ businesses had been experiencing.

"Instagram’s free-wheeling suspensions and shadow banning (where content is secretly hidden or downplayed in user searches and algorithms without notifying the creators) is just another example of bias geared toward the LGBTQ community by these giant social media companies that many of us use and rely on. At the core of this is the anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion emphasis pushed by Trump and his administration. Social media companies are only one example, albeit a big one since billions of people use the platforms daily. Especially in the LGBTQ community, sites like Instagram are a place to share information and promote events, not to mention businesses.

Paige Collings with Electronic Freedom Foundation told us that what Instagram is doing around LGBTQ content creators is “algorithmic silencing around content.” There has been a proliferation of censorship of LGBTQ content, she noted, that has been most evident over the past two years, but especially since last November. That was, of course, when Trump won the presidential election. He spent much of his campaign going after trans people, and that only intensified when he took office. Among his first executive orders was declaring there are only two genders – male and female – and he also signed an order banning trans people from serving in the military." Bay Area Reporter

I have been reading about an Economic Blackout to coincide with the holiday shopping season that launches on Black Friday, and have decided that Adam's Nest will turn off all paid marketing expenditures on social media during the period in solidarity and as a response to META's downplaying of content.

People often question the usefulness of such boycotts, but sometimes speaking with our dollars is the only thing that gets attention. "Target's January decision to end its DEI programs has triggered one of the most sustained corporate boycotts in recent memory, one that's only broadened over time."

From Investopedia's article on the boycott:

Key Takeaways:
• Target Corp.'s (TGT) stock has plummeted 33% since the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, wiping out over $20 billion in shareholder value by mid-September 2025.
• Consumer boycotts over the rollback appear to have had a significant impact, with sales and foot traffic dropping significantly this year.
• CEO Brian Cornell's planned transition to executive chair of the board in February 2026 comes amid Target's ongoing challenges.

Another recent boycott has resulted in people cancelling their Spotify subscriptions.

"The criticism reached a fever pitch recently when reports came out that Spotify, along with other streaming services, had been running recruitment ads for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In response to the backlash against the ad, a Spotify spokesperson clarified in a statement, “This ad is part of a wider campaign from the U.S. government running across multiple platforms, including television, streaming, and online channels. Users can provide feedback on ads—such as liking or disliking them—to help manage their ad experience.” The backlash against ICE has intensified in recent months because of the excessive force used by ICE agents to increase arrests. According to Newsweek, Spotify users have already started canceling their subscriptions over the ads."

Boycotts like these do have an impact, and seeing the dramatically reduced organic reach of our content on Meta, led to our decision to participate in this upcoming Economic Blackout. We will continue with our typical promotional strategy during the holidays, and we urge everyone to do what is within their abilities, shop small, and shop with businesses that share your values. As always, you can shop with us and know you are supporting a small queer-owned business that gives back.

We know how quickly Jimmy Kimmel was back on air; here's hoping these continued boycotts pressure the powers that be to see their consumers as valuable as their investors.

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