| Comment | Protests that cause disruption draw attention to the protest's subject. Not all of that attention will be favourable, of course, but they're not necessarily trying to change your thinking immediately while you crawl around the city in your car, they just want you to be aware. You might be moaning about them, but you are aware of the message it carries. The hope would be that you retain that message after the annoyance about the protest's disruption subsides and consider the message itself. You're pretty unlikely to remember anything at all about a protest that involves quietly standing out of the way of cars and pedestrians since there's nothing remarkable about that. You didn't have to acknowledge them at all, therefore, why would you remember the point of the protest except maybe to remark "oh there's some people over there with signs, I wonder what they're on about" before you drive/walk away. |
|---|