London, September 21 : Britons have voted fast food giant McDonald''s as the most-hated brand in a new survey.

The world''s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants gathered votes from 46 per cent of consumers to be the least-liked brands in the poll, conducted for Marketing magazine.

Charlie Robertson, of Glasgow''s Red Spider brand consultancy, said that health concerns and its market dominance might explain consumers' dislike of McDonald''s.

"People are worried about growing obesity and fast food, while they also dislike McDonald''s for its bland Americanising of the high street," the Scotsman quoted Robertson as saying.

Other well-known names featured in the list included retail chain Tesco, which came in second, followed by Coca-Cola and the clothing retailer Primark.

Consultants FreshMinds, who quizzed 1,000 people for the research, said major brands were both loved and hated by consumers.

Alistair Leathwood, its managing director, said: "As a nation, we''re famous for our love of the underdog, so hating big brands is a national pastime. However, when it comes to the weekly shop or getting a bite to eat, consumers still spend cash on the brands they are proud to hate."

A spokeswoman for McDonald''s said: "We are serving more customers than ever before, during the summer over three million people a day visited our restaurants here in the UK. We take notice of surveys but pay most attention to what our customers say to us directly." (ANI)