Unilever for Obama; P&G for McCain

A Look at Employee Contributions to Campaigns

Posted by Jack Neff on 10.24.08 @ 12:52 PM

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- In case you needed any other proof of the rivalry, it turns out Procter & Gamble Co. (and its employees through their political action committee) overwhelmingly contribute to Republicans. Unilever doesn't have a PAC, but its employees overwhelmingly contribute to Democrats.

These are the findings of GoodGuide's political contributions page, released today and reported on Dara O'Rourke's blog at the Huffington Post. You can just click on a brand icon to see which way marketers in an industry, or their employees, vote with their dollars. O'Rourke makes the not-so-subtle argument that consumers should align their spending likewise.

Of course, the P&G-Unilever divide comes as little surprise to people who know the companies. For one thing, Unilever has its marketing and administrative offices in the New York and Chicago metro areas. P&G is centered in Cincinnati, a veritable buckle on the bitter belt, even if the Busken cookie poll does indicate the city is sweet on Barack Obama.

But some of the divides in other industries are a little surprising. Sure, it's no surprise Costco is way out in left field in GoodGuide's chart, but who knew Target would be right there with Wal-Mart on the GOP side?

The pharma companies, not surprisingly, are all lined up together in the GOP camp. Starbucks is all by its lonesome among a raft of GOP donors in foodservice. Among financial services firms, despite reports of Mr. Obama's Wall Street windfall, most still are GOP leaning, though a few, such as Deutsche Bank, Visa, MasterCard and JP Morgan Chase have gone blue. Tech and telecom, led by Cisco, Google and, amazingly, IBM, may be the bluest industry.