Are Global Consumers Turning Away From U.S. Brands?

Are anti-American sentiments putting consumers off buying U.S. brands? According to a recent report by Morning Consult, this is the case. Northerly neighbor Canada is perhaps the clearest example of this trend, with consumers having turned away from purchasing U.S. products in protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest policies and rhetoric and instead choosing to “Buy Canadian”. In France too, some consumers angered over Washington’s latest moves are boycotting U.S. brands, citing Trump’s announcements of punitive trade tariffs, his stance on diversity and inclusion, as well as his handling of Ukraine and his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In both cases, the U.S. brand as a country is directly impacting consumers behavior towards individual companies’ brands.

Data published by Axios looks more closely at how global sentiments on a selection of U.S. brands changed between January and March, 2025. Of the 16 brands surveyed, 12 saw declines in favorability, with FedEx, Chevron and WB/ Discovery having seen the biggest drops (each down more than 33 percent). However, as this chart shows, the trend does not extend across all brands, with Meta, McDonald’s, OpenAI and Apple Inc. having each seen improved sentiments since Trump's inauguration.

It is important to note here that without further data it is difficult to say whether these changes are a causation or merely a correlation as there are multiple reasons why consumers opinions on a specific brand could change with time.