The "Resist and Unsubscribe" movement is based on the premise that withdrawing economic participation is the most powerful form of protest in a market-driven society. It's a low-effort way for citizens to exert influence, as markets respond more crisply to shifts in consumer behavior than to ideological arguments.

Influential voices with dedicated audiences have a greater impact when engaging their community directly on native platforms like Substack. These owned channels can drive nearly as much traffic as a campaign's primary website, demonstrating the power of concentrated, high-trust audiences over broad, traditional media reach.

The long-term, consistent effort of building a personal media channel, despite its costs and emotional toll, provides an enormous return on investment. This owned audience can be mobilized to drive significant action and traffic, rivaling multi-million dollar paid ad campaigns.

Scott Galloway calculates that one NPR article drove 27,000 visits to his "Resist and Unsubscribe" site. Using conservative e-commerce conversion rates, he estimates this single piece of media led to a $6 million loss in market capitalization for large tech companies, demonstrating the tangible financial power of earned media in activism.

Scott Galloway's "Resist and Unsubscribe" website traffic was declining until he appeared on traditional media outlets. This drove a significant resurgence in visitors, proving legacy media is crucial for amplifying and sustaining digital-native protest movements.

Despite funding cuts and the rise of social media, traditional public media retains significant influence. Data from an activist campaign showed a single story on NPR's website drove over 28,000 unique visitors, a volume that ranked just behind giants like Instagram, Facebook, and Google.

Scott Galloway observes that his quirky, self-produced videos garner up to 1M views, while his appearances on CNN primetime reach only 300-400k people. This demonstrates the superior reach of authentic, direct-to-audience social content over traditional broadcast media for individuals building a brand.

Scott Galloway's "Resist and Unsubscribe" site being blocked by Microsoft was seen not as a setback, but as validation. This institutional pushback fueled media attention and public support, demonstrating that corporate attempts to silence criticism can backfire and legitimize a movement.

The real leverage in consumer boycotts is not the direct financial hit from cancellations. It's the media narrative about potential impact that creates pressure on employees, partners, and executives, ultimately forcing a corporate response—as seen when Disney reversed course on Jimmy Kimmel.