Yo dawg, long as we still gettin paid, it's all good
War and Abuse Do Little to Harm U.S. Brands
By SIMON ROMERO
FRANKFURT, May 8 — When American troops moved into Iraq last year, European executives at the Ford Motor Company braced for an adverse consumer reaction.
"Our sales and image and market share are things we monitor extremely closely," said Niel Golightly, a Ford spokesman in Cologne, Germany. "So the potential fallout risk from Ford being perceived as a symbol of America's foreign policy is something we're always looking at."
But aside from a single incident at a dealership in Italy last year, the company has seen no evidence that widespread anti-Americanism abroad has been aimed at the well-known Ford brand. In Europe, Mr. Golightly said, Ford's market share has remained steady, and sales are expected to improve slightly this quarter. And the business outlook remains upbeat despite recent developments in Iraq, including the revelation of photographs depicting the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.
For a variety of reasons, American companies that sell globally say that they have so far experienced little if any disruption from discontent over the war in Iraq. For the most part, consumers around the world seem as likely to be influenced by economic conditions as by politics. And, in a display of the growing sophistication in marketing big American brands in global markets, many people see products originating from the United States as firmly rooted in their own home nations.
