The View | Hedge funds and corporate bosses vie for ‘Scrooge of the year’ title

There’s nothing like the festive season for a bit of contrarian expression so let’s use the opportunity offered by the arrest of the former whizz kid Martin Shkreli to subdue thoughts of good cheer by thinking about what it takes to become a spectacularly unpopular business or a much hated business leader.

Shrkeli was arrested on charges of operating a Ponzi-like scheme in the United States. He is also famous for proudly taking over a pharmaceutical company and hiking the price of medications for Aids patients from US$13.5 to US$750 per pill. Compounding the outpouring of rage he assiduously took to the airwaves to boast about his achievements.

Shkreli may even succeed in entering the history books in a worse light than the legendary Hollywood mogul, Louis B Mayer. It was famously said that the best explanation for the large number of people attending his funeral was to make sure he was dead.

Hollywood moguls are doing better in the popularity stakes these days and have yielded their most loathed status to bankers. This is despite the fact that image consultants and all manner of PR people with ever-fancier titles increasingly surround bankers.

You might have thought that these fine folks would do a better job of keeping their bosses off hate lists. But a Harris Poll of 27,278 Americans conducted earlier this year saw bankers again topping the business hate list. Goldman Sachs was rated as the No 1 most hated, followed by the insurance and finance conglomerate AIG. Their image problem can be summed up simply: too rich, too arrogant and responsible for screwing far too many people.

However there were other contenders in the unpopularity stakes. Some, like BP and Monsanto, had been involved in major scandals. Others, like Wal-Mart, ranking 17th on the hate list, probably suffered precisely because they have so much direct contact with the public and far too many people have tales of how Wal-Mart let them down.

McDonald’s is another company with low popularity ratings, probably for similar reasons but also because it tends to be demonised for the unhealthy nature of the products it sells. Yet, when the fast food giant has attempted to introduce healthier options, such as salads, the public has shown a marked lack of interest.