Their outrage may have something to do with the fact that chain restaurants, despite employing millions of Americans, very often do not provide health insurance for their workers. While these men have every right to voice their outrage, a recent YouGov BrandIndex report implies that their opinions may be hurting their brands.

Examples from the past month:

• An owner of several Applebee’s branches claimed that “…we won’t build more restaurants. We won’t hire more people” due to the additional costs of insuring employees via “Obamacare.”
• A south Florida man who runs several Denny’s and Dairy Queen locations discussed his plans to add a 5% surcharge to all orders in order to cover the anticipated cost of the legislation, telling customers that “if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server, who is the primary beneficiary of Obamacare.”
• After reports led some to believe that Obamacare would force him to close stores, fire workers and raise prices, Papa John’s CEO (and major Mitt Romney fundraiser) John Schnatter recently took to The Huffington Post to clarify his statements on the matter, writing that everybody just needs to calm down because all of his restaurants plan to “honor the law.”

There’s little doubt that these statements paint the men who made them as jackasses, yet the YouGov brand report hints that the damage runs deeper: these execs’ anti-Obamacare rants have led the public to lose respect for their brands.

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But a recent survey by the respectable YouGov Brand Index indicates that political leanings and brand preference are at least somehow related:

The top ten most favored brands for:

Some of these “revelations” are so obvious as to be annoying: Lots of registered Republicans watch Fox News, and lots of registered Democrats listen to NPR. Next you’ll tell us that most registered Republicans prefer Mitt Romney to Barack Obama!

Most of the list is just confusing.

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According to Ad Age, surveyors posed the same question for each brand: “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” YouGov then derived scores ranging from 100 to -100 by subtracting negative feedback from positive (For instance, a score of zero means a brand received equal parts positive and negative feedback).

Oil company and international pariah BP, whose public image has soured since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf Of Mexico, reportedly saw its score jump from a negative 5.9 in the week prior to the Olympics to a positive 2.6 during the first week of the games thanks to ads like this one. Only Visa, which, according to YouGov, spent $100 million to be a “Worldwide Olympic Partner”, saw its brand perception rise more during the same time period. Ted Marzilli, global managing director for YouGov’s BrandIndex service, told Ad Age, “We have seen the recovery with BP over the last year and a half…but I think its association with the Olympics is showing benefits.”

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Bloomberg has done himself few favors by endorsing Doughnut Day, declaring his love of mayonnaise, and, in the past, showing his affinity for hot-dog-eating contests. With July 4 just around the corner, it’ll be interesting to see if he’s as enthusiastic about the annual Nathan’s event.

Despite all that, Bloomberg’s proposal seems to be having the desired effect. According to YouGov BrandIndex, beverages across both the soda and non-soda sectors have taken a hit to their reputations in the New York area. There’s even been a decline in reputation for the beverage sectors nationwide, though YouGov said it’s not statistically significant just yet.

For his part, Jerry Seinfeld is against the ban, but pro-Darwin.

[image: Associated Press]

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The folks at YouGov BrandIndex crunched the numbers to determine the number one beer choice across the country and in three major cities. With the exception of Chicago, which prefers Heineken (and doesn’t like America or St. Patrick’s Day), Sam Adams was tops with taste buds in the U.S.

For this research, YouGov took a look at scores from the past four weeks. These scores are based on the perceptions of U.S. adults of drinking age. Each day, YouGov interviews 5,000 people for their thoughts on a variety of topics.

The company also looked at spirit preferences. Check it out after the jump.

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New Orleans cleans up after Mardi Gras. Photo: Patrick Semansky / AP

As of October 2010, BP‘s CEO Bob Dudley was talking about rebuilding the company’s reputation after the Gulf oil spill. Though we may be feeling the ill-effects of this horrible, tremendous disaster for the foreseeable future, people are starting to feel better about BP for some reason.

According to YouGov BrandIndex, BP’s buzz score rose nearly 12 points between January and February 2011, handing it the top spot for biggest buzz improvement of the month. Sentiment surrounding the company is still negative at -15.7. But, according to BrandIndex, BP’s buzz score was -67.2 last June.

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