Activism is more effective when focused on the subscription revenue of tech companies. These firms are highly sensitive to churn, trade on high revenue multiples, and have political influence. This approach amplifies consumer signals far more than general boycotts requiring significant personal sacrifice.

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.

Historical analysis of successful boycotts shows they share two traits: they are narrow in focus and easy for participants to execute. A broad campaign like 'Resist and Unsubscribe' is less effective than a highly targeted action, such as advocating for everyone to cancel a single, specific service like ChatGPT.

Due to high valuation multiples (8x-20x revenue), subscription-based businesses are exceptionally sensitive to activism. A small loss of subscribers can trigger a disproportionately massive drop in market capitalization, as seen when Netflix lost $50 billion after a minor churn.

Due to massive differences in revenue multiples, consumer spending cuts affect companies differently. A dollar lost by a high-multiple tech company like OpenAI (40x revenue) erases far more market cap than a dollar lost by a low-multiple retailer like Kroger (0.3x revenue). This gives consumers targeted leverage over Big Tech valuations.

Scott Galloway's "Resist and Unsubscribe" movement highlights the leverage individual consumers have. Each cancellation directly hits subscription revenues, which the market punishes severely, creating significant market cap loss from a small, individual action.

With only an estimated 4% of potential users willing to pay for AI services, the consumer market is too small to sustain the business. This reality forces OpenAI into a binary outcome: achieve massive enterprise adoption or face bankruptcy.

Scott Galloway provides a quantifiable breakdown of how a single social media post from a celebrity like Chelsea Handler can trigger thousands of unsubscribes, directly translating into a $1.2 million loss in market capitalization for the targeted companies.

The speaker provides a direct formula for consumer impact. By canceling a $240/year subscription to a company valued at over 40x revenue (like OpenAI), an individual can trigger a market capitalization reduction of approximately $10,000. This makes abstract consumer power tangible and quantifiable.