Posted on: Sunday, March 30, 2003
French, U.S. firms say boycotts having little impact
By Gregory Viscusi
Bloomberg News Service
PARIS — After a day managing a golf course near Paris, Mustafa Hachour likes to sit down to a McDonald's hamburger. The 35-year-old Frenchman is also a staunch opponent of the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
"Bush is killing innocent people, and that's unacceptable," he said as he read a newspaper after dinner at a McDonald's Corp. restaurant in Paris. "But when I'm hungry I eat what I want. It doesn't matter if it's French, American or Italian."
At the Princeton Wine and Liquor in Princeton, N.J., Tom Grim says he hasn't stopped buying French products.
"I like French wine and cheese," said the 51-year-old resident of nearby Pennington. "The war is about government versus government. It has nothing to do with the people. If anyone wants to flush their French wine down the toilet, I'll take it."
Companies in France and the United States, whose two-way trade was about $56 billion last year, say that, so far, most consumers are acting like Hachour and Grim.
Although pro-war groups in the United States are calling for boycotts of French goods and anti-war activists in Europe are telling consumers to avoid U.S. products, companies such as Michelin & Cie. say the impact has been limited.
"We get a few e-mails and letters a week from people saying they will boycott Michelin, but there has been no effect on our business," said Fabienne de Brebisson, a spokeswoman for the French tiremaker, which vies with Bridgestone Corp. of Japan for the No. 1 spot worldwide.
"We've heard about boycotts, but so far everything seems to be normal, and we haven't noticed any decline in business," said Estelle Bohrer, spokeswoman for Esso France SA, the French unit of Exxon Mobil Corp. The world's largest oil company has 815 gas stations in France.
Exxon figures prominently on lists of U.S. companies to boycott published on Web sites such as that of the Ghent, Belgium-based ecological group Mother Earth. Its pages in Dutch, English and French also list General Electric Co., Coca-Cola Co., McDonald's and General Motors Corp. among 21 companies.
Canadian activist group Adbusters said 32,000 people have signed its Boycott Brand America pledge.
Consumers Against the War calls itself "a group of young Europeans who are fed up with watching an uneducated cowboy with his narrow-minded advisers and some European governments ruin our future." It's targeting a list of 27 companies, including Philip Morris Inc., Ford Motor Co., Citigroup Inc., American Express Co. and Microsoft Corp.
In the United States, Veto la France lists about 80 French brands to avoid and gives advice on how to replace trips to France with visiting the French quarter in New Orleans, gambling at Paris-themed hotels in Las Vegas and touring cheese farms in Wisconsin.
In an e-mail, Catherine Griffin, who says she founded the Web site, said "many Americans feel abandoned and even betrayed by the lack of support from the French government as the U.S. sought world support in disarming Saddam Hussein."
Griffin said her goal is to force French President Jacques Chirac to apologize to the United States for opposing United Nations resolutions authorizing war with Iraq.
Internet news service Newsmax.com has started a Boycott France campaign and is seeking donations to buy ad space in U.S. newspapers to publish its list of 80 brands and companies to avoid.
Newsmax.com's list includes many brands that are French-owned but sound American, such as Bancwest Corp. (BNP Paribas SA), Car and Driver magazine (Lagardere SCA), RCA televisions (Thomson Multimedia SA), and Motel 6 (Accor SA). The list also included several Pernod-Ricard SA drinks such as Wild Turkey bourbon, Jacob's Creek Australian wines and Jameson whiskey.
"It's true that there's anti-French sentiment in the U.S., but right now I'm not worried," Patrick Ricard, chairman of Pernod-Ricard SA, the world's third-largest liquor maker. "Most of our major products are American or Scottish or Australian brands."
Groupe Danone SA said it's seen no effect on U.S. sales of its Dannon yogurt or Evian mineral water.
Accor, the world's fourth-largest hotel company, has removed French flags that normally fly over its 10 Sofitel hotels in the United States, Chairman Jean-Marc Espalioux said earlier this month. He said there were no signs anyone is boycotting their hotels.
L'Oreal SA, the world's largest cosmetics company, said its brands such as Maybelline, Ralph Lauren fragrances and Kiehl's skin and hair-care products are considered international.
Even McDonald's said it no longer is seen as purely American.
"Because of the mad-cow crisis and the controversy over American hormone beef, it's been three years that our advertising has stressed that we buy all our beef in France and that we employ 38,000 people here," said Etienne Aussedat, spokesman for McDonald's 975 French restaurants. "I think that effort is paying off."
Although McDonald's doesn't release sales figures by country, he said, there have been no signs of lost business.
At a suburban school near Paris, 15-year-old Marc Lerouge said he hasn't bought any U.S. goods since Bush became president two years ago. As he shows that his sneakers are made by Germany's Puma A, the other 30 students in his class tell him his gesture is pointless.
"It's impossible anyway because it would limit so much what you can do and buy," said Stephanie Ramelet, 15, who like many of her classmates opposes the war.
