Occupy: Si, Changing Public Opinion: Not Exactly

Ironically, the movement to protest the inequities of America's financial system in September 2011 originated in Canada. "Occupy Wall Street," which took over Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, was inspired by the Canadian activist group Adbusters.

The Occupy protest movement was designed to expose social and economic inequality in the United States and elsewhere by exposing greed, corruption, and the undue influence of corporations on everyday life. While the movement attracted copious press coverage and did engrain its slogan, "the other 99 percent," in the public psyche, from a public relations perspective, Occupy Wall Street's results were mixed.

One criticism of Occupy was that it flailed out in too many directions, issuing news releases at breakneck speed to attract publicity to stay relevant in the public's mind (Figure 4-3). The shifting focus of Occupy targets, its detractors argued, tended to dissipate the important messages about inequality that the movement had committed to confront.

Critics also argued that the protestors showed little respect for local residents and merchants, whose daily lives and businesses they interrupted; engaged in criminal activities in their encampment; and practiced questionable hygiene (Figure 4-4).

In terms of changing public opinion, Occupy Wall Street was plagued by having unclear and constantly evolving goals, no unified message, no one leader or spokesperson to crystallize objectives, and appearing to be more con- cerned with publicity than with evoking positive change. Indeed, it was difficult to follow the movement's targets-one day the banks, the next hedge funds, the next educational institutions.

When the movement began to fizzle in the winter of 2011, the New York Occupy and its derivatives around the nation had spurred as much attention as they had outrage. While the New York Times editorialized, "The Occupy Wall Street protesters had achieved a great deal," the Wall Street Journal took another view, concluding, "OWS botched an opportunity to capture public opinion and achieve something."

Questions

1. How successful do you believe Occupy Wall Street was?

2. Had you been running the movement's public relations initiative, how would you have improved its approach?

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