Badvocacy Part I

Badvocacy? It may be a new term, but definitely not a new concept. Whenever a product or service is produced, people will give feedback. This feedback is generally from either good or bad.

In a little booklet  called The Good Book of Badvocacy produced by Weber Shandwick, one of, if not the largest global public relations firms in the world, the company with the “Advocacy starts here” slogan defined advocacy and its opposite, badvocacy:

“Today’s world is filled with advocates…people who talk or act on behalf of companies, organizations, issues, brands, causes and products. Sometimes quietly and sometimes loudly. They do it among friends and families. They do it at work. They do it in chat rooms and on blogs. They do it in their communities. Some have broad-reaching platforms; some are reaching just their own circle of friends. And some Advocates are simply BADVOCATES—people who passionately criticize or detract from companies, brands or products in all the above ways.”

A badvocate is the advocate’s counterpart, the villain, the antagonist. It is a displeased customer that makes their displeasure known.

Naturally, many companies have long since feared the badvocate, those customers willing to do anything to keep that company from progressing or even functioning for whatever reason whether it be poor service, poor products, or a bad experience.

However, it wasn’t that long ago that is was hard for consumers to even let a company know they weren’t satisfied. Comment cards only go so far—like from the cashier’s counter to the cashier’s garbage can.