Campaign Name: Holiday Inn, Don’t Be a #HostForHate
Target: Holiday Inn Conference Center in Janesville, Wisconsin.
Demand: Cancel the Trump rally. Don’t be a host for hate.
Frame: During Donald Trump’s campaign for President, he announced racist and sexist views. When people protested, his supporters often turned violent and his campaign racially profiled attendees, kicking out anyone they suspected of being a protester.
We framed his views and events as toxic for any company to be connected to and dangerous to the company’s clientele and anyone attending.
Opportunity: The events could only happen if companies agreed to host them. The hotel made sense as a corporate and local target who has an image and business to maintain.
Tactics:
- We launched the petition and shared it with friends we have in Wisconsin.
- We sent it to the press so that any news of Trump’s rally would include protest and the demand on the Holiday Inn
- A local group, Groundwork, took up the demand and organized people to call the front desk
- The night before the Trump rally, Groundwork held a protest that included people sitting-in in the hotel lobby
Partners:
We partnered with local activists who were looking for a way to protest Trump’s hate.
Breakthrough Moment:
We didn’t succeed in cancelling the event but we did succeed in painting Trump as dangerous, demonstrating opposition in Wisconsin to his views, and creating negative press for the company after it decided to host the candidate’s hate.
The night before the rally, protesters wore t-shirts saying “first they came for the immigrants,” and “first they came for the Muslims” to allude to the need for people not directly attacked by Trump’s views to take action to stop them.
Background and Sample Material: