Corporate reputations take a whipping

[Dover]

Corporate reputations take a whipping

Even firms not involved in scandals are feeling the sting of distrust, survey says

By Ronald Alsop

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Big corporations are stuck in the doghouse.

More than two years after a wave of accounting scandals shook the public's trust, the reputations of many of the best-known companies continue to decline. In their latest corporate reputation study, Harris Interactive, a Rochester, N.Y., market research firm, and the Reputation Institute, a New York-based research group, found that the public is still mad at many of the 60 companies in this year's ranking: Three-quarters of the survey respondents graded the image of big corporations as either "not good" or "terrible."

Never mind that the economy and stock prices are rebounding. And forget about time healing all wounds. People are far from ready to forgive the corporate fraud, deception and greed they have witnessed. ("Rebound"??!! STILL lying!)

Respondent Eva Johnson, a 34-year-old homemaker in Franklin, Ohio, said, "I'm very disappointed in how money can rob the goodness in people."

The lingering taint of corporate malfeasance accounts for much of the ill will. And it's clear that the public still wants blood. Many people surveyed expressed bitterness that the big fish -- Kenneth Lay of Enron Corp., Bernard Ebbers of MCI and Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco International Ltd. -- haven't been held to account....cont'd

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/business_047311c7656cd17e00ff.html

[loftycity]

1. It's about time...20 years of hell from these creeps...n/t

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

2. big corporations are "not good" and "terrible"

hell I could have told you that!

"Tt's clear that the public still wants blood" - why do you think Kerry getting all that money from Wall Street? Protection money.

[Dover]

3. I think we need another kind of punishment for all these corp. thieves.

We should lock them up and force feed them 100 dollar bills until it matches the amount they stole. The more they stole, the more likely they'll die of GANGSTER-GREEN.

Let them "consume" till they choke.

[Dover]

4. "Too many companies think they can simply advertise their way

out of a bad reputation," said Joy Sever, senior vice president at Harris Interactive.

That's true for Bush's PR team as well. The flight suits and appearances for the NASCAR crowds just won't cut it. Substantive positive change is what people want, and that's something Bush will never be able to sell.

[Wapsie B]

5. Yeah,

just like the DOW chemical commercials after the Bophal (sp)incident.