Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

Shell and VW top list of NGOs ‘most hated’ brands in the UK

Screen Shot 2016-01-18 at 13.52.57

Zlata Rodionova: 18 JAN 2016

Volkswagen has made a list of non-governmental organisations’ “most hated” brands in the UK for the first time, following a turbulent year for the company dealing with fallout from the emissions scandal.

VW came in at fourth place in the survey that named Shell as the most hated brand.

VW is now the seventh least popular brand in the world, according to the survey of more than 7,500 NGOs by Sigwatch, a consultancy.

Robert Blood, founder and managing of Sigwatch, told the Independent that the Volkswagen scandal allowed NGOs to draw attention to the bigger problem of green emissions.

“Volkswagen is not an oil and gas company. It’s not a company that NGOs want to hate, but in this case they had no choice. It was a big shock for VW as it is a national champion,” he said.

In September VW admitted to rigging its US emission test so that diesel-powered car would look like they were emitting less nitrous oxide, which can damage the ozone layer and contribute to respiratory diseases.

“Our company was dishonest with the EPA and the California air resources board, and with all of you, and in my German words, we have totally screwed up,” said Michael Horn, former US chief executive of Volkswagen.

Nine of the top 20 most criticized companies in the UK were oil, coal or mining companies. Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant was the most disliked by charities for the second year in a row pushed by continuous criticism over its Artic drilling plans. British oil and gas company BP and mining corporation Rio Tinto ranked second and third respectively.

But Sigwatch has predicted that the cancellation of Shell’s Artic operation in 2015 should make the company much less of a target for NGOs this year.

“Shell has many issues and it won’t drop out of the list but we expect them to be way down the list in 2016,” he told the Independent.

Three banks, Standard Chartered, Barclays and HSBC, were in the top 10 for NGO criticism.

Mark & Spencer, Unilever and Nestlé were the most praised companies in the UK.

FULL ARTICLE

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.