Anti-U.S. Backlash

By Sean Gregory

It may not be a boycott, but it's beginning to feel like one. According to two polls by GMI, a Seattle-based market-research company, nearly 20% of consumers abroad say they will avoid U.S. companies and products like McDonald's, Starbucks, American Airlines and Barbie dolls because of the U.S.'s unilateral foreign policies. And the more American a brand is perceived to be, the more resistance it encounters. For instance, almost half the survey respondents (including 1,000 people from each of the G8 nations, excluding the U.S.) associate Mattel's Barbie with America, while 10% make the same link with Kleenex. So 33% of respondents say they will avoid Barbie, but only 10% won't touch the tissues. (Worldwide Barbie-doll sales fell 13% in the third quarter of 2004.) The study found that U.S. brands with few substitutes such as Levi's and Microsoft should go unscathed. But 43% of consumers overseas say they won't smoke Marlboro cigarettes. "I don't think foreign policy is going to drive down quarterly revenues right away," says GMI chief operating officer Mitchell Eggers, who spearheaded the study. "But over time, given the sharp change in how foreigners view American brands, the bottom-line differences will tend to come out." --By Sean Gregory