Budweiser, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, decided not to run a commercial during the Super Bowl for the first time in 40 years and instead allocated that spending to the Ad Council’s pro-vaccination campaigns. Immunizations will “liberate people,” CEO Carlos Brito said in an interview.
Some CEOs are leading by example. Nestle SA’s Mark Schneider said that if a vaccine were immediately available to him, “I would get vaccinated in front of all our people to be a role model.”
“It’s the best possible way to protect yourself and to protect your colleagues, and we’ll be very clear on that, just like we were very clear early on on the masks,” he said in an interview. “One of the downsides last year was that very good, effective prevention measures such as masks were politicized.”
Vaccine or Test
Osem Investments, a Nestle subsidiary in Israel, will bar employees who haven’t been vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19 from the workplace unless they submit a negative virus test every three days. Businesses including Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. and Intel Corp.’s Mobileye have also asked workers who are vaccine holdouts to stay home or provide a recent negative test.
Several airlines are taking an equally hard line: Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, has said he wants to make vaccination a requirement for the company’s 60,000 workers. The initiative is dividing employees—the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 141, a union representing fleet and passenger service staff at United, has said it’s received complaints from workers who don’t want to get shots as well as concerns from employees who don’t want to come into contact with unvaccinated colleagues.
Striking a persuasive tone on vaccination will become ever more important as executives hasten a return to the office. Employees at jeweler Tiffany & Co. in the U.S. have been instructed to work at least two days from the office from the beginning of March—whether they’re vaccinated or not.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said at a conference last month that more of the firm’s bankers would have been back in the office by now if vaccine distribution had been faster in the first quarter.
Working from home is an “aberration that we are going to correct as quickly as possible,” he said.
—With assistance from Corinne Gretler.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.