Monday, April 7, 2014

Whining Works

Ok, I cannot and should not take credit for a change in corporation policy, but the coincidence amuses me.

While I was traveling, I found out via social media that Chili's, the restaurant chain, was supporting an autism awareness group that supported the anti-vaccination movement.  Since I am, ahem, virulently opposed to the anti-vaxxers, I was most disappointed to see that the only fast food restaurant at my terminal in Calgary was Chili's.   I tweeted my frustration

and eventually Chili's tweeted back at me, so I responded thusly:
and then a friend tweeted me the news:

Clearly, I was not the only one upset at Chili's and I am sure others were tweeting at/about the food chain.  Sure, they might not have known better.  The reality is that if you give money to a group that supports a conspiracy theory that is leading people to undermine the collective good of having a vaccinated population, those folks who tend to buy into this thing we call science are going to get upset.  Companies have a hard time these days dancing between different motivated opponents who can tweet/facebook/blog/whatever their various concerns.  A good rule of thumb might be to stick with science?

Anyhow, I jokingly took credit for the change, as Laura was just teasing.  The folks who deserve the credit are those who got out the news, as it is easy to tweet and retweet.  It is harder to keep track of all these companies and the questionable charities that some support.

1 comment:

R. William Ayres said...

I'm seeing more public push-back against the anti-vaccination crowd. Too many folks have seen mumps, whooping cough, and others come back in recent years. In our neck of the woods there's been a serious whooping cough problem, and Ohio State has been the center of a Mumps resurgence. That tends to get people's attention. Go science!