Answer195

	Sign In Sign-Up

Answer195

Question195

#195. Do you buy or not buy products based on the advertizer's religious, political, philosophic or corporate image?

My buying behaviour is based largely on the product and my familiarity with it, not on my view of the companies which provide the product. (DJ Nozem #1465)

I would avoid them if I could, but in this day of multi-national mega corporations, where through constant mergers, spin-offs, and reorganizations, every company with whom we deal, belongs to some other company, how do we know for what they stand?

For example, do you drink Maxwell House coffee, or Miller beer? Do you eat Post cereals, Kraft cheese on Ritz crackers, Oreo cookies, or Kool Whip on your Jello? Do you like Oscar Mayer franks, Di Giorno pizza, or Breakstone cottage cheese? Guess who is the parent company of the manufacturers of all of these and more products? That's right, your friendly cancer merchant, Philip Morris! (John Hachmann #1782)

The only major exception is pizza. I absolutely refuse to buy Domino's Pizza because of Tom Monoghan, the man who founded it. He uses the lion's share of his profits to fund Catholic stuff, like radio stations, schools, universities, convents, etc.

My primary alternative is Little Caesar's Pizza, because it was founded by Mike Ilitch. Ilitch has been the owner of my favorite sports team[1] for quite a long time now, which plays a big part of it. Also, he generously supports the arts and the community of Detroit, doing things like buying and renovating the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit. (You can view some beautiful, but small, pictures here: http://www.metalog.com/about/Detroit/fox.htm You can read more about what Ilitch has done in this 1994 article: http://www.freep.com/news/metro/mi050294.htm )

Monaghan couldn't seem to treat women right, like firing a store manager who was openly lesbian, or refusing to have a woman on his board of directors (until he was sued.) Ilitch's wife, on the other hand, has been his partner since day one, helping him run his first restaurant back in 1959 and continuing to help him run his many corporations ever since.

I could go on, illustrating why I think Ilitch deserves my money more than Monaghan, but I think you get the picture. I respect and admire Ilitch (and his wife, Marian, and their many children) and despise Monaghan. It should be obvious that I will acknowledge that when I spend my money. (Carl Funk #1229)

Absitively.

There aren't many good hobby shops in Pensacola, but I refuse to do business with Hobby Lobby because they are extremely vocal in their religion--little fishies in their ads, bible quotes on their home page, and signage like "We are closed today so that our employees can worship the Lord and be with their families." The two times I actually went into the local store, I got an extremely "snotty" vibe from the store and its customers and staff...dunno if it was a "moral superiority" vibe or what. I simply bought up a somplete stock of model planes (they're unfortunately about the only place in town that sells the old Guillow's balsa-and-paper plane kits).

At any rate, I can find what I need at places that don't have to advertise their religion (I can order those planes by mail, etc.). (Fury)

I can't remember any advertisers religious image, much less my reaction to it; but yes, the political, philosophical and corporate image of some advertiser did lead to private boycotts on my part. (Daneel #323)

I have bought stuff from http://www.evolvefish.com/ and that was very much a choice made by the above mentioned reasons :) (ichimusai #769)

Not often. Not actively.

As a rule, I buy based on my needs, price, product quality, service and support. IMO, there should be a wall of separation between religion and commerce, just as there is between religion and government. (chib)

In a diluted way, I do. Obviously, there are some objects sold strictly because of their image appeal, and I try to avoid that unless I'm deliberately supporting that - obvious examples are Darwin fish, T-shirts for performers, etc.

Other that than, I use the images in conjunction with my experience. For example, I know not all Xians are dishonest scumbuckets - but I've yet to have one with the Xian fish display make me feel like they want my return business. As near as I can tell, if a business puts that on their display, they are more likely than not to be out to rip me off, and figure Xian sheep will flock to them anyway. What I've seen jives with that.

ANY politician is dishonest when they ask for money, whether with something material to exchange or not. That's easy.

Corporations vary. I won't buy Dominos pizza, because the owner/founder is a big supporter of Operation Rescue (the fundy project to terrorize and intimidate pregant women who don't subscribe to keeping and later abusing unwanted, unplanned children).

I used to be loyal to the local grocery chain, because although they weren't always cheapest or widest selection, they had a corporate mandate to support local interests like homeless groups, disadvantaged children school supplies, etc. New management is changing that, and my spending habits are changing as well.

So yes, I do use that info to some extent. Not as THE criteria, but as SOME criteria. (Dewey Henize #122)

If the company is known to donate money to the Christian Coalition, "right-to-life" organizations, missionaries or other odious religious and political causes, I don't buy from them. That's why I don't buy from Domino's Pizza. (Chris Nelson #135)

Occasionally I do or don't. Here are a few examples:

I don't buy Nestle products (for the same old reason that most people have forgotten about)

I don't generally buy Kraft, Nabisco, etc (owned by PM)

I don't invest thru Meryll Lynch (supports BSA discrimination against gays and atheists). I use Calvert, Vanduard, WM, and Fidelity instead. For the same reason (BSA) I try not to buy Procter and Gamble stuff.

I absolutely refuse to donate anything to the Salvation Army (fascist jerks). Instead, I donate to Goodwill and to local charities (Sacramento Children's home)--including some local church-run charities (as long as they do not try to trade food/help for religious indoctrination)-- and sometimes to Habitat for Humanity.

I use Working Assets Long Distance because I like the general idea, though some of the specific issues they pick are too silly imo.

I favor Disney, not based on the merits of what they produce (dismal, I'd say), but because they started offering benefits to domestic partners and stood up to the disgustingly fanatic Southern Baptists on this issue. I like IBM for the same reason.

I also like Microsoft (believe it or not): they recycle more than any other corporation of comparable size and they offer excellent benefits to employees and their families, including domestic partners. For all this, I am willing to forgive questionable aspects of their products. (btw, I find it ridiculous that MS should be found *guitly* of anything for squashing their rivals and becoming a monopoly--this simply confirms Marx's wisdom concerning a truly free market--but I could see forcing them to split into several companies, in essence admitting that there ain't no such thing as a free market). But I'm digressing.

I generally avoid buying from Shell (I don't like the business with the Nigerian guy) or Unocal (they dump more pollutants into the SF bay than all the other refineries combined--in fact several orders of magnitude more).

This is all I can think of right now. I don't make a big deal of any of this, I don't lecture people for not doing what I do--witht he exception of Salvation Army (I have told some people that they should say to hell with the jerk, and so far all have responded positively). And I don't mind using products by all theser companies if alternatives are not readily available. (Orhan Orgun #1867)

Click here to return to master question page.