A casual conversation with a Dutch contact, with whom I have no professional relationship, led to the publication of a Financial Times story a couple of days later that became the most read article on June 13, 2020. The story I heard was that of a major corporation, IKEA, giving back furlough payments it did not need. My news antenna bleeped stridently. This was against the trend and therefore newsworthy. The prevailing news mood surrounding the issue was tainted by the ‘greedy fat-cats’ phase, who won windfalls without any real suffering. This built a public consensus: companies were milking the systems. Now, here was a potential good guy, IKEA, an example of a fair company that does not want to accept any state handouts that are not morally justified. To be sure, Ikea has suffered some internal irregularities recently that have knocked its reputation. But this news cut through the trend at the time, introducing a company that deserved to be seen as ethical. The FT article’s publication prompted much controversy and scepticism. With 90,000 page views, it was the London paper’s most read article, triggering 165 comments from readers, one of which required me to point out that I received no remuneration for promoting this story.
