WASHINGTON, Nov 23: A recent poll indicates many European consumers don't want to purchase US products and services because of President Bush's re-election.
The survey, conducted by GMI World Poll, says Marlboro cigarettes, American Airlines, United Airlines, McDonalds, General Motors, CNN News and AOL are particularly targeted for boycott by Europeans in five countries.
The poll, conducted one week after the US general election, sampled 8,000 international consumers, including a 1,000 representative sample in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
The survey found 81 per cent of Germans, 73 per cent of French and 52 Per cent of consumers living in the UK are displeased by the re-election of President Bush.
Additionally, nine of 10 French and German consumers think the US president is an ineffective global leader. Two-thirds of all European respondents believe the Bush administration's foreign policies are driven by self-interests and empire building.
As a consequence of their frustration with US policies, one in five European consumers indicate that they will avoid purchasing certain American brand products and services in the future, the survey says.
"When allies view American foreign policy as arrogant and self-interested, we damage our reputation for being powerful, innovative and, most importantly, fair," says Dr Mitchell Eggers, GMI's chief pollster.
GMI World Poll also found that 35 per cent of Europeans say their image of America is most influenced by US foreign policies. With that in mind, 41 per cent of global respondents think the US-led war in Iraq was an attempt by the Bush administration to control oil supplies and more than two-thirds of all respondents think the United States might attack another country in its war against terrorism within the next four years.
The study indicates that companies most closely associated with America and with good local non-American made substitutes were most likely to be impacted by the European consumers' boycott.
International marketing expert Allyson Stewart indicates this may be the beginning of a growing hostility towards American companies not only in Europe, but globally.
"The anti-American sentiment overseas is at risk of growing still further as Europeans perceive they have another four years of distasteful American foreign policies," she stated. "If anything, the appointment of Condoleezza Rice, who is seen as even more hawkish in Europe than Colin Powell, may exacerbate this perception there," explains Ms Stewart-Allen.
When GMI World Poll respondents were asked to describe the American people, the three most common answers were "friendly," "arrogant" and "creative." Contrarily, the American government was described as "arrogant," "loud and unwilling to listen," and "powerful," according to the GMI World Poll.
Other key GMI World Poll data include: 61 per cent of French and Germans, and 59 per cent of British think the re-election of President Bush has increased the possibility of an attack on the United States; only nine per cent of Europeans believe that the Bush administration will successfully build a democracy in Iraq within the next four years. The recently completed survey is the sixth GMI World Poll conducted over the past several months.
