The frequent use of consumer boycotts by certain environmental protection and civil society protagonists makes one wonder about the true potential effectiveness of this tool. By cross-checking the elements of behavioural economic analysis and game theory, we propose to differentiate between the main sources of ineffectiveness of such actions and, in particular, the weakness of coordination between participants, the potentially massive presence of free-riders, the characteristics of markets and alternative technologies, and so on. These studies will help towards the identification of areas for reflection on the relative effectiveness of the socially aware consumption. We illustrate the subject with the example of tropical timber logging.