[Linkpost] “The good, the bad, and the fair cop” by Toby_S

This is a link post. Hi, I’m Thorbjørn “Toby” Schiønning, co-founder of Anima International. I was encouraged by my colleague Jakub Stencel to share our new blog post on negotiating and campaigning for animal welfare here (this is my first post here). Summary Over the past two decades, a small group of advocates has secured major corporate commitments on animal welfare – from cage-free eggs to fur-free policies – but securing a commitment means nothing if companies don’t follow through. The animal advocacy movement relies on two traditional approaches: the “good cop” (dialogue and collaboration) and the “bad cop” (public pressure and campaigns) – each with real strengths, but also significant blind spots. The bad cop approach is straightforward and visible, but often fails due to limited budgets, lack of mass public mobilization, and companies increasingly willing to wait campaigns out. The good cop approach frees up resources and builds trust, but its leverage is limited – and companies can exploit it by treating NGOs as free bodyguards while making minimal progress. A third approach – "fair cop” – combines the flexibility of both: starting from genuine good faith and collaboration, but escalating assertively when warranted, without being locked [...] --- Outline: (00:27) Summary (01:37) How animal advocates (not always) win (02:36) The story so far (06:09) Playing poker with multinational corporations (08:01) A quick example of what I mean by fair cop (09:58) Fair cop in practice (12:06) The bad cop - the stick (13:38) When does the bad cop approach succeed? (14:05) When does the bad cop approach fail? (15:46) The good cop - the carrot (16:41) When does the good cop approach succeed? (18:40) When does the good cop approach fail? (20:12) So what to make of all of this? (20:56) Combining their strengths (23:43) Why fair? (25:22) When public campaigning is needed (26:46) Fair cops weakest points (27:52) Fair cop in action (30:43) Summing it up --- First published: March 31st, 2026 Source: Linkpost URL: --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO . --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts , or another podcast app.