Red wins 2 to 1
Keeping track of each company's political alliances is difficult for consumers. Especially if the brand you prefer backs the political party that you don't.
Let's take a look at how Team Red and Team Blue fare across several industries:
Food
McDonalds is a tastier fast-food option than Arby's.
Winner: Red.
Drinks
Coors makes pretty average beer, while Gallo (which has donated heavily to Nancy Pelosi and Tom Daschle) makes pretty average wine.
Winner: push
Airlines
United is the only major airline to give more to Democrats than Republicans, while Continental is part of my preferred SkyTeam Alliance. But airlines -- like cell phone companies -- aren't a real customer-service-friendly industry right now; I refuse to award a winner in this category.
Gasoline
Hess backed John Kerry's failed 2004 bid, while Exxon is clearly the dominant force in this industry.
Winner: Red.
Hotels
I don't know much about Hyatt (which helped bankroll Barack Obama), but I've always hated Marriott for some reason.
Winner: Blue.
3 comments:
interesting about united--i assume that the contributions of each airline are heavilly dependent on whether their hubs are in red or blue states.
Maybe.
United's hubs:
Chicago (blue)
Denver (red)
Los Angeles (blue)
San Francisco (blue)
Dulles, Va. (red)
Why Coors? They are a distant third to Anheuser-Busch and Miller in US beer sales, while Gallo is the second largest winery in the world Plus, the Coors CEO lost a Senate election. That's gotta count for something.
Then again, why Arby's. They're pretty far back in the pack of fast-food sales too. I haven't eaten there since high school. I'm guessing Dave Thomas of Wendy's fame was pretty conservative.
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