Adidas

Adidas was nominated for its total arrogance. In the year in which New Zealand both hosted and won the Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1987, this transnational corporation (TNC) tried to charge New Zealanders substantially more for its “official” All Blacks’ jersey than what it charged for the same item if bought overseas. When NZ fans resorted to buying the jerseys online, Adidas blocked those Internet sales outlets. To add insult to injury the jerseys weren’t even made in NZ but in Asian sweatshops. It was a public relations disaster for Adidas and when it finally pulled its head out of its arse and dropped prices, it had seriously pissed off a huge chunk of ordinary rugby loving Kiwis in the most important year in NZ’s rugby history in a quarter of  a century. It was universally denounced throughout the country but still refused to apologise for the rip-off.