WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (AFP) - One in five European consumers is likely to boycott goods produced by US companies, such as Altria's Marlboro cigarettes, McDonald's and General Motors, in protest of American foreign policy, according to a new poll.
About 8,000 European consumers were surveyed a week after the November 2 US presidential election by Global Market Insite (GMI).
The poll's results showed "frustration over President Bush's reelection and (the) US' unilateral foreign policy," GMI said Tuesday.
Some 81 percent of German consumers, 73 percent of French and 52 percent of British expressed discontent with President George W. Bush's reelection victory.
Altria, American Express, United Airlines, McDonald's, General Motors and CNN cable news are the brands most likely to suffer from Europe's dissatisfaction with Bush, GMI said in a statement.
"GMI's World Poll data illustrates that a less favorable view of America affects the image of products closely associated with American brands," said GMI's Mitchell Eggers.
Fifty-six percent of German consumers identified General Motors as a key American brand, and 42 percent said they would not purchase one of the US motor group's vehicles as a result.
The three most common descriptions of Americans were "friendly," "arrogant," and "creative," the poll found.
The US government was described as "arrogant," "loud and unwilling to listen" and "powerful," by Europeans canvassed by GMI.
Two-thirds of all those polled said they thought the foreign policy aims of the Bush administration were driven by self-interest.
Forty-one percent said the Iraq war had been launched by the Bush administration in a bid to control Iraq's vast oil reserves and over two-thirds believed the United States would attack another country during Bush's second four-year term which stretches to 2008.
Sixty-one percent of French and German respondents and 59 percent of Britons also said Bush's reelection increased the possibility of a new terror attack against the United States.
And only nine percent of Europeans believed the Bush administration would be able to establish democracy in Iraq over the next nine years.
11/23/2004 20:53 GMT - AFP