Bacardi is a barracuda

It is a voracious, immoral, corporate predator that stops at nothing – Bacardi Limited should be re-branded “Barracuda Unlimited”.  

It must cease supporting the economy that pays for the invasion of Ukraine.

While this corporate carnivore is biting off market share and sucking up the blood money, Bacardi the barracuda is also slippery.  It is a master in ‘moralwashing’.  It printed liquor packaging with the Ukrainian flag before it was caught red-handed with its whisky for sale on Russian shelves with fresh dates.  It announced humanitarian aid to Ukraine while raking in Russian profits.  Also, it mysteriously deleted its web site promise that it had “paused exports to Russia and frozen advertising investments in the market” without openly saying what its new position was.

At the Moral Rating Agency, we have rarely seen so much hypocrisy in one company’s dealings with Russia.  Ceasing exports is useless when bottles magically appear on the shelves.  Donating to Ukraine while supporting Russia only desecrates its paltry donation.  Indeed, aiding an aggressor while simultaneously aiding its victim is a dirty irony.

This is not a company that just does wrong: profit-fuelled unethical acts are even worse when undertaken in secret by a fake hero.

In June, the MRA called for a global boycott of Bacardi products: Dewar’s, William Lawson’s, Grey Goose, Martini, Bombay Sapphire, the Bacardi brand itself, and everything Bacardi makes.  We support Ukraine in naming the company as an international war sponsor. 

Everyone who supports Ukraine should ‘think before they sip’.  If you are offered a Bloody Mary made from the Bacardi group’s Grey Goose vodka, reply that you didn’t order a ‘Bloody Russia’. 

Stand up and say that Bombay Sapphire gin turns a gin and tonic into a ‘Blood & Tonic’, and Dewar’s turns a Scotch & Soda into a ‘Blood & Soda’.  Every Bacardi group drink should be re-branded in our minds and called out for what it is.

We can then help to get companies out of Russia, to get Russia out of Ukraine, and Putin out of Russia.

Mark Dixon, Founder and Rater-in-Chief, Moral Rating Agency, 15 August 2023

Mark Dixon runs the Moral Rating Agency, the goal of which is to get companies out of Russia, to get Russia out of Ukraine, Putin out of Russia, and dictatorships out of the world.