US Brands Suffer a Loss of Respect

Losing respect around the world can have some interesting effects, even for a super-duper power like the US.

A UK based market research company called NOP World has found a steady decline in the popularity of American identified brands around the world:

According to NOP World, which carried out the survey, a mixture of America's controversial involvement in Iraq, its handling of the "war against terrorism", corporate scandals such as WorldCom and its failure to sign up to the Kyoto environmental agreement, have all had a profoundly negative affect on the perception of US culture and its major brands. (for the full article click here)

The decline, despite the article's claims to the contrary, is relatively minor, but it will be interesting to see if it continues in parallel to America's continuing loss of respect, particularly in light of the recently revealed torture of Iraqi civilians.

Much of the US government agenda is set by corporate interests. I wonder how much damage to the bottom line those corporate interests will take before they start to take action to change American foreign policy?