Multiple Corporate Personality Disorder - 10 Worst Corporations in 2003

[Oilwellian]

BAYER
Everyone Is Expected To Obey The Law
Bayer's got a headache, and aspirin ain't going to help.

Earlier this year, the company pled guilty to defrauding the federal government out of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicare payments.

<snip>
And it's not just stealing with Bayer.

Check this out:

The Times of London reported earlier this year that the giant pharmaceutical company used students to test a "highly hazardous" pesticide linked to serious disorders.

Bayer CropScience, of Mannheim, Germany, paid the students, mostly from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, about $450 each to consume the pesticide, according to the report by Times medical correspondent Lois Rogers. Experts are worried that cash-strapped students are vulnerable targets for researchers.

BRIGHTHOUSE
Brave New World

"We are a novel form of consumer consultancy that leverages scientific knowledge about how the human brain motivates consumer behavior to deliver strategic insights that are intended to enhance the relationship between the consumer and the product, brand and company. Our goal is to define the neural basis of behaviors that are of specific interest to strategic business decision making, as well as of generic interest to the field of neuroscience. We are not interested in telling companies what people think about their products, but rather how they think. Our focus is decidedly from the consumer perspective with the direct intent to influence the behavior of companies, rather than consumers."

Or, as the company said a bit more directly in a 2002 news release: "The Thought Sciences team uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a safe and non-invasive technique, to identify patterns of brain activity that reveal how a consumer is actually evaluating a product, object or advertisement. Thought Sciences marketing analysts use this information to more accurately measure consumer preference, and then apply this knowledge to help marketers better create products and services and to design more effective marketing campaigns."

Winning advertising approaches spark activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. This shows an instinctive identification with a brand or product. There may be interest and desire for a product if activity appears elsewhere in the brain, but not the same unbridled identification. Or at least that's the theory.

Says Gary Ruskin of the Portland, Oregon-based Commercial Alert, "It sounds like something that could have happened in the former Soviet Union, for purposes of behavior control. Yet it is happening right here in America."

Other companies listed:

BOEING
Soaring Through Turbulence

CLEAR CHANNEL
Poor Character

DIEBOLD
Pulling Its Own Political Levers

HALLIBURTON
The Cheney-Industrial Complex

HEALTHSOUTH
Getting Away Scot Free

INAMED
Basic Questions Not Answered

MERRILL LYNCH
Don't Trust Them

SAFEWAY
Unhealthy Demands

http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2003/03december/dec03corp1.html

[denverbill]

1. Wow. Tough group when Walmart can't make the grade.

[Oilwellian]

5. Indeed

I noticed that too. I'm sure they contemplated for weeks trying to decide which are the worst. That's probably a hard thing to measure these days when you consider the large scale corporate crime that's occurring, with the blessings of our Justice Department.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

2. Regarding Clear Channel

What specifically did they do in reference to breaking the laws to promote an "on air personality"?
I don't listen to any clear channel owned stations in my area so forgive my ignorance.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. According to the story linked in the original post...

Donahue released a report documenting Clear Channel's illegal activities, including:

-Misleading the public about the rules for radio contests, including its "So You Want to Win 10,000" contest which offered a prize of "10,000" to listeners who could accurately answer 10 questions -- without informing the audience that the prize was 10,000 Italian lira (or $53), not $10,000;
-Deceptive advertising;
-Broadcasting conversations without obtaining permission of the second party to the conversation;
-Broadcasting obscene and indecent material during daylight hours when children are likely listening;
-Illegally taking operational control of a radio station;
-Repeatedly flouting the rules pertaining to the testing of the emergency alert system, maintenance of station logs, and antenna construction;
-Conviction for animal cruelty in violation of state law for the purpose of promoting an on-air personality;
-Pleading guilty to criminal mischief in violation of state law for the purpose of promoting an on-air personality;
-Disturbing the peace in violation of state law for the purpose of promoting an on-air personality;
-Defacing public property in violation of state law for the purpose of promoting an on-air personality; and
-Falsely causing a public emergency to be reported for the purpose of promoting an on-air personality.
</snip>

This, of course, doesn't include all the shit they inflicted on the Dixie Chicks for exercising their first amendment rights...

[DrZhivago]

4. not to mention their horrible and really short playlists

and them succesfully making every radio station in the country sound like the same lame "alternative" station

[smiley_glad_hands]

6. Not to mention being the GOP's primary Propaganda machine. n/t

[Oilwellian]

7. Kick

:kick:

[Lisa]

8. what -- they were getting attached to the lab rats ....

... so they decided to use college students instead?

Geez. I know some people who went to that school.