If you want your business to survive, you don't go around messing with mothers. That's the story here, as the National Pork Board tried to intimidate a woman who writes a blog called The Lactivist from selling t-shirts that said "the other white milk" on them to help raise money for a website that promotes a woman's right to breastfeed her child in public.

Anyway, she got this quite vicious letter from the lawyers of this group that we all know so well, and she decided to fight back in the only way she knew; she wrote about it on her blog, and posted a copy of the letter. She also posted the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of the people at the Pork Board. She got over 300 responses on her blog, and many more who read, then wrote about it in their own blogs; we're not quite sure how many phone calls or emails the Pork Board folks got.

Well, the Pork Board scrambled and recanted. The Pork Board CEO, Steve Murphy, wrote and apologized for the offensive comments in the original cease and desist letter. Other members of the Pork Board got together and dipped into their own pockets to come up with money to help fund the project (officially, the Pork Board is a non-profit, so they can't donate money on their own). And, the writer of this blog, decided to change her slogan to "Breast: the original white milk", which seems to have satisfied everyone.

This points out the power of the internet, as well as how large corporations have to make sure they're not only going after the right people, but for the right reasons. They also need to make sure someone signs off on the types of letters they send out, especially to possible consumers. One doesn't have to engage their local TV stations as much anymore; one never knows who's reading, and how information will get out.

I applaud this women, Jennifer Laycock, who also happens to be the editor of the "Search Engine Guide, which means she was someone who really knew how to use the internet to her advantage. I also thank her for proving that there are many facets to good customer service, and this is proof that negative stories will move very fast across the internet world.