They get involved by looking at advertising and really critically assessing the consumer behavior aspects of it and getting involved sometimes doing primary research.
This, in turn, inevitably means bigger grocery bills for consumers, and greater hardship for the millions in countries where food shortages are a matter of life and death.
The real test of the rest of the world's stamina will come over the next year, as the negative wealth effects of falling home prices start to weigh on American consumer spending.
Such hijacked media are the opposite of earned media: an asset or campaign becomes hostage to consumers, other stakeholders, or activists who make negative allegations about a brand or product.
It has seemed unable to have what Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has called an "adult conversation" about the consequences of spending so much more than is taken in.