Boycott of French & German Products Faces Confusion

"More than half of U.S. consumers say they would take into account whether a company is from a country that did not support the U.S. invasion of Iraq before buying stock, according to a Fleishman-Hillard/Wirthlin Worldwide poll of 1,000 adults," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "Consumers who advocate and have taken part in boycotts of goods made in those countries were found to be white, mid- to upper-income, conservative Republicans, according to the survey." There is some confusion, however, among those surveyed as to country of origin of many brands. For example, 64 percent said Grey Poupon mustard is French (it's from the U.S.). Despite its well-chronicled PR efforts, French's mustard was identified by 29 percent of respondents as French. Seventy-eight percent said Universal Pictures is a U.S. company (it's owned by France's Vivendi). Then there's the 42 percent who said Saab is German (originally from Sweden, it was bought by General Motors), the 55 percent who said Bayer is from the U.S. (German), and the 70 percent who said Heineken is German (it's brewed in the Netherlands).