General Electric General Electric (GE), the producer of countless consumer goods in the 1980’s had been boycotted by INFACT (Infant Formula Action Coalition). The boycott against General Electric came upon the company when the company became involved with the military. For the boycott, INFACT wants to put pressure on GE for the involvement of the production of missiles, weapons, and military supplies. Though in the 1990’s a documentary Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons, and Our Environment (General Electric, 2010, para.2) had won an Academy Award, though this did help to stop most of the boycotts. Throughout the 1990’s, GE was still being charged with dumping waste materials into the Hudson River in New York. “According to a 2002 study, GE is a “repeat offender” in misconduct among the government’s top contractors.” (General Electric, 2010, para.3). The charges that are against GE are environmental harm, fraud, employment discrimination, and poor safety conditions. Though GE feels the charges and the media has damaged the company. For this reason and many others, customers or ethical buyers will not shop through GE, boycotting is what he or she will continue to do. General Electric is ranked over the years as a well admired company though. According to Ethical Corporation, “Two years after launching Ecomagination – which the company describes as “an aggressive, long-term initiative to bring new technologies to market that help meet the world’s biggest environmental challenges” – the project’s revenues are ahead of the $20 billion target for 2010.” (General Electric and the Hudson – The dirty legacy of an admired icon, para. 1). Therefore with the company standing over the past few years as one of the well admired companies, General Electric had over 200 miles of river that was destroyed from the toxins poured into the river. In addition, the problems with General Electric are that the company is well known and liked though the company is tied in with military weapons and pouring toxins in to a river. The company has ethical issues within the company and the employees are taking a hard hit. Many companies also will not want to have anything to do with GE as well as customers who shop fir GE products.
Proctor & Gamble In every household there is a product manufactured by Proctor & Gamble (P&G). Although many who purchase the products do not know that P&G conducts inhumane animal testing for the company’s products. Protestors and activist will go against P&G for spending almost a billion dollars to find ways to advertise about finding a safe way to test the products without the use or harm of animals. Proctor & Gamble’s cosmetics and other products have been made, though the company is being accused of using toxic phthalates in the products. Also the company is not holding to the media part for the company. P&G is being accused of an undue influence with the media. This has caused P&G to have a boycott against the company. Having a boycott can cause issues with the company as well as the supporters or consumers of the products. Even though P&G is a big supporter for the family values, the company is having issues with several ethical shoppers is the fact that the company uses animals for all the testing for the products. According to Ethical Shopping 2010, “Many people have boycotted cosmetic and other products directly related to animal testing while others have decided to boycott the entire company.” Proctor and Gamble over the past years have spent over millions of dollars in the product testing of animals. According to P&G Kills (2004). “P&G refuses to put its money where its mouth is. In 2004 alone, P&G spent $3 billion on advertising. This stands in stark contrast to the $64 million that P&G claims to have spent on developing alternatives over a 14-year period.” P&G has spent less on the testing of animals then the company has on its advertising. Even though P&G has issues with the ethical consumers, P&G is working to make changes towards making changes within the company. Changes such as being a 100% renewable energy power plant, using 100% recycled materials, no waste to the landfills, and making changes to the products to serve to the consumers liking. P&G’s employees and stakeholders will be able to get more involved with the environmental and social programs. “Our objective is to equip all P&G employees to build sustainability thinking and practices into their everyday work. We will also work transparently with stakeholders to enable continued freedom to innovate in a responsible way.”(P&G 2010).