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Behind the gleaming corporate logos lie dark tales of exploitation, war crimes, and human suffering. Join us as we expose the disturbing backstories major corporations would rather keep buried! From Nazi collaborators to colonial oppressors, we're peeling back the carefully crafted PR to reveal the shocking truth about some of the world's most powerful companies.
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00:00This is not independent research.
00:05This is a study by Philip Morris.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:09And today we're counting down our picks for stories the corporate world's most powerful players,
00:14past and present, would rather you didn't know about.
00:17People didn't really understand that IBM had this incredible operational, economic,
00:26and planning alliance with the Third Reich.
00:28Number 10.
00:29Bayer.
00:30Most don't know that the past of this German pharmaceutical giant,
00:34famous today for aspirin and a myriad of health products, is shrouded in moral shadows.
00:39Before it adopted its benevolent modern-day image,
00:42Bayer was one of the constituent companies forming the infamous IG Farben conglomerate during World War II.
00:48It was a partnership that supplied the Nazi regime with essential chemicals,
00:52including the components for deadly Zyklon B gas used in concentration camps.
00:57Even before this horrific period, Bayer was responsible for introducing heroin to the world in 1898,
01:04marketing it as a non-addictive cough suppressant and painkiller, even for children.
01:09Its late 2010s merger with Monsanto, intended as a rejuvenation, added insult to injury.
01:15Speaking of which…
01:16For decades, this American agrochemical and biotechnology corporation was at the forefront of producing some of history's most ecologically and humanly destructive substances.
01:28It's part of the playbook that they've gotten from the tobacco years of how to make up science in an effort to discredit good science.
01:38During the Vietnam War, Monsanto was a primary manufacturer of Agent Orange,
01:42chemical defoliant that caused widespread devastation and health issues in both Vietnamese citizens and American veterans.
01:49Beyond warfare, their production of PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, for decades resulted in pervasive environmental contamination globally,
01:59leading to staggering cleanup costs and ongoing health concerns.
02:02Because we've seen so much evidence of how the company has worked to hide the risks of its products.
02:09Later, the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup sparked massive lawsuits alleging links to non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
02:16The final blow was their furious targeting of farmers regarding patented seeds,
02:22solidifying their reputation as a corporate behemoth, unafraid to flex its considerable legal and economic muscle.
02:28I mean, Monsanto used to be, or maybe still is, the most hated company in the world.
02:34Number 8. Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
02:36The very tires that grip our roads conceal a history of exploitation that stretches across continents
02:42and echoes practices akin to colonial-era forced labor.
02:47In 1926, Liberia offered Firestone a chance to develop up to a million acres of land, at six cents an acre.
02:56In the early 20th century, Firestone secured a massive concession of one million acres of land in Liberia, West Africa, for rubber cultivation.
03:04Liberian workers were subjected to back-breaking labor, abysmal wages, and severe discipline.
03:10Collecting sap was grueling work, sometimes done by entire families for a few dollars a day.
03:17It's hard work, it's demeaning, and the pay is very small.
03:21Reports from the era and later historical analysis describe a system where workers were essentially indentured,
03:27living in company-controlled towns with little freedom or recourse.
03:30Firestone's vast rubber plantations became infamous for their slavery-like conditions,
03:36a stark reminder of how resource extraction often came at the cost of human dignity.
03:41It made me feel very bad that that person's management did not care about the well-being of the black staff.
03:47You know, hell was breaking loose, and they didn't care for them.
03:51Number 7. Standard Oil
03:52The company founded by John D. Rockefeller became the largest oil refiner in the world,
03:58pioneering the modern corporate structure.
04:00But its rise was paved with ruthless tactics that defined the gilded age of American capitalism.
04:05The most powerful of all, oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, the world's first billionaire.
04:12Standard Oil aggressively crushed competitors through price wars, secret rebates from railroads,
04:17and outright intimidation, eventually controlling over 90% of the oil refining market by the 1880s.
04:24His company, Standard Oil, savages and then swallows up its competitors,
04:29and ends up controlling 90% of the American oil industry.
04:34Rockefeller was famously accused of employing spies to uncover rivals' business secrets,
04:39deliberately driving them to financial ruin, after which he often bought them out for pennies on the dollar.
04:43This relentless pursuit of monopoly power led to its breakup by the Supreme Court in 1911,
04:49under antitrust laws, forever changing the landscape of American industry.
04:53The new companies that resulted from Standard's breakup and those that emerged from the Texas oil fields
04:59would fiercely compete with each other in the decades to come.
05:05Their competition was to transform the very nature of American life.
05:11Number six, Philip Morris International.
05:13The name Philip Morris is synonymous with the tobacco industry, particularly its Marlboro brand,
05:19and its story is one of calculated addiction and denial on a global scale.
05:24If you read their internal documents, you can see that they knew full well
05:29that there was a link between cancer and cigarettes.
05:34They knew full well that it was a causal link.
05:37For decades, the company, like its peers, actively suppressed scientific evidence linking smoking
05:43to cancer and other deadly diseases, misleading the public and policymakers alike.
05:48Their marketing strategies, particularly the iconic Marlboro man,
05:52effectively hooked generations of new smokers, including youth, on highly addictive nicotine products.
05:57Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro country.
06:02Even as the health consequences became undeniable,
06:05Philip Morris continued to lobby aggressively against stricter regulations,
06:09especially in developing nations where regulations were less stringent.
06:13This left a legacy of corporate malfeasance that continues to take the world's breath away,
06:18just not in the romantic sense.
06:20Cancer Research says if Philip Morris really wants people to stop smoking,
06:24they should stop making cigarettes. Fair?
06:27So we should have that, you know, more mature and illogical conversations,
06:32because the fact that the Philip Morris will stop or not stop being cigarettes, nothing will happen.
06:36Number five, Hugo Boss.
06:38Beyond its status as a high-end fashion brand today,
06:42the origins of Hugo Boss are steeped in the grim reality of Nazi Germany.
06:46Founded in 1924, the company struggled through the economic depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
06:53However, its fortunes dramatically changed with the rise of the Nazi Party.
06:57Hugo Boss himself was an ardent Nazi, joining the party in 1931,
07:02and his company became a crucial supplier of uniforms for various Nazi organizations,
07:07including the SA, SS, and Hitler Youth.
07:10During World War II, the company heavily relied on forced labor,
07:14utilizing French and Polish prisoners in its factories.
07:17This pitch-dark chapter remains an incredible part of Boss's foundation.
07:22Number four, Volkswagen.
07:24Volkswagen literally means the people's car in German,
07:28a moniker conceived by Adolf Hitler himself in 1937,
07:32who envisioned an affordable automobile for every German family.
07:36The other idea is something called the people's car, Volkswagen.
07:42And that's going to be made affordable to the masses
07:44by constructing it with a massive state subsidy.
07:48He tasked Ferdinand Porsche with designing this vehicle,
07:51which would eventually become the iconic Beetle.
07:53During World War II, Volkswagen factories were converted to produce military vehicles,
07:59notably the Kubelwagen and Schwimmwagen, essential to the German war effort.
08:03The Kubelwagen was Germany's Jeep.
08:06It was a vehicle that could be mass-produced,
08:09that provided transportation not just for VIP and command leadership,
08:13and it could also function as a fighting vehicle.
08:16Crucially, the company employed tens of thousands of prisoners of war
08:20and concentration camp inmates in horrific conditions to keep production lines running.
08:25It's a dark irony that a car meant for the people
08:28was built through the suffering of those stripped of their humanity.
08:32And laborers who work there go about trying to destroy
08:35as much of what remains of this factory as they can.
08:38You know, they're ripping telephones out of walls,
08:40they're sledgehammering walls down.
08:42You know, they are going to destroy this place
08:44because it's been their prison for four years.
08:46Number three, IBM.
08:48The story of international business machines,
08:50cornerstone of modern computing,
08:52harbors a chilling secret from its early days
08:55that connects it directly to the Holocaust.
08:57But in 1933, there was no computer.
09:03What there was, was the Hollerith punch card.
09:07Through a German subsidiary,
09:09IBM provided early punch card tabulating systems
09:12that were instrumental in conducting censuses,
09:15identifying Jewish people and others they deemed undesirables,
09:19and managing the logistics of Nazi operations.
09:22It isn't that they handed this information off and just left.
09:25It wasn't like a telephone that they would just sell.
09:28They were on site.
09:29The company's founder, Thomas J. Watson,
09:31even accepted a medal from Hitler's regime in 1937,
09:35though it should be noted that Watson returned the award in 1940.
09:38While the extent of IBM's direct knowledge of the machine's ultimate purpose remains debated,
09:43the fact that their technology empowered the Nazis' horrific administrative apparatus
09:47is an undeniable stain on its history.
09:49Never again should an American company's innovation,
09:54technology, and muscle be used to afflict innocent civilians.
10:00Number two, United Fruit Company.
10:02Before it became Chiquita Brands International,
10:05the United Fruit Company was a titan of agricultural industry,
10:08wielding immense power across Central and South America.
10:11United Fruit's financial power in the United States was formidable.
10:15In the tiny, impoverished republics of Central America and the Caribbean,
10:19United Fruit's influence reached dominant proportions.
10:22Its dominance was so pervasive that it became synonymous with the term Banana Republic,
10:27a testament to its ability to manipulate politics,
10:30economies, and even military forces in the countries where it operated.
10:34United Fruit would succumb to the temptation to dominate transportation,
10:38destroy competition,
10:40dictate substandard wages and working conditions,
10:43violently suppress labor movements,
10:46and install and overthrow governments.
10:48Perhaps the most infamous incident was the 1928 Banana Massacre in Colombia,
10:53where the company allegedly pressured the Colombian government
10:56to brutally suppress striking banana workers,
10:59resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths.
11:02United Fruit's grip on Central America became so infamous
11:05that its influence is now studied as a textbook example of corporate colonialism.
11:09Its legacy still casts a huge shadow over U.S.-Latin American relations.
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11:29Number 1. East India Company
11:33Often considered the world's first true multinational corporation,
11:38the East India Company was far more than a trading entity.
11:41It was a sprawling empire unto itself,
11:44leaving a catastrophic trail of exploitation, famine, and oppression across South Asia.
11:49Established in 1600, its initial purpose was trade with the East Indies,
11:54but over two centuries, it transformed into a colonial power that conquered, ruled, and plundered vast swaths of India.
12:01The company maintained its own private army, minted its own currency,
12:06and exerted political and economic control through brutal force, taxation, and monopoly.
12:11Its policies led to the de-industrialization of India,
12:14suppressing local production to serve British interests,
12:17and its insatiable demand for revenue exacerbated the devastating Bengal famine of 1770,
12:24which killed an estimated 10 million people.
12:27Which of these company backstories shocked you the most?
12:30Are there any we missed?
12:31Let us know in the comments down below.
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