The Customer is always right. The Customer isn't always American. Ooops.

Business would b so much easier if it weren't for people and their damned feelings and opinions.

James Wolcott

...Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Marlboro, and GM were all revealing problems echoing those "already faced by Disney, Wal-Mart and Gap."

Corporate chiefs dismissed the connection between falling sales and rising anti-Americanism.

"But the timing of the decline lends credence to warnings by a marketing and advertising group after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that US brands could face trouble. 'My sense is we are seeing a transfer of anger and resentment from foreign polices to things American,' said Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide, an advertisting agency owned by Omnicon."

Flash-forward to this morning's FT, and its front page story "Coke chief promises 'dramatic' changes."

Coke's chairman Neville Isdell acknowledged deep problems besetting Coke, including "continued weakness" in Germany and France, attributable in part to consumers shifting from sugary carbonated drinks to bottled water, etc.

But only in part.

"Kevin Roberts, chief executive of the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency, expects US brands such as Coca-Cola to face 'growing resistance from Europe and Asia' because of opposition to US political policies. [Seymour Hersh, as far from an ad exec as you can get, makes the same point in a recent campus talk.]

"He said: 'Consumers are going to be pissed off at having Brand America rammed down their throats.'" He said that US multinationals would have do develop a advertising camouflage campaign, tailoring their marketing to local markets and deemphasizing the American connection.

In a related story in this morning's NY Times, Coke's chief marketing officer indicated the opposite, saying that Coke would do less "tactical" local advertising and devote more attention to Coke's broad appeal.

"We want to promote the bigger global ideas that are based on universal human insights."

Aye, but here's the rub... More

Surprised? Vous? Moi? Non.