Effect vs. Affect

TIME's note about GAP’s hideous new logo (now reverted to the original) involves a commonly misused verb.

Feeling powerless to affect real change in this country? You shouldn't be: After consumer protest, the much-reviled new Gap logo has been replaced with its staid blue-boxed predecessor.

While the social media outcry certainly could have affected how things turned out for the logo, in this case its usage implies that the formerly powerless social media users were the impetus for real change, thus effecting it.

Effect, rarely used as a verb, is fitting here.

At any rate, I seriously hope this is just a ploy to drum up attention for the real logo. Nobody could have looked at this and thought, “Yes! Masterpiece!”

Right?