Writing about the brand of someone whose name is "Brand" opens the door to some possible confusion. Despite the name of this blog – and the title of my book – I have long been clear that I prefer the word "reputation" to the word "brand", since it connotes exactly the same to the lay…

Should brands take stands on controversial topics? The first question is, why would you? It is inherent to the word “controversial” that you are going to irritate at least some people. Most of the time, customers who agree with you are not going to buy any extra product and some people will buy less or…

After a hiatus, Brandjack News is once again covering brandjacking, ESG, crisis, business ethics, and digital communications. 

By Quentin Langley According to Google Trends, searches for some variation of "corona beer virus" have increased dramatically in recent weeks. But does that mean that people are confusing the beer and the virus.  First, the confession. I am one of those searchers. Obviously, there are few people who write professionally about crisis management, and…

By Quentin Langley At a restaurant you might order the Tuscan Pizza with no onions but with extra black olives. Alternatively, the whole menu might be a la carte, and you build your own pizza or salad. Either way, some sort of negotiation has happened between the customer and the restaurant over what, exactly, is…

By Quentin Langley While Starbucks feels rather ubiquitous, it is a predominantly urban chain. Its clientele skew younger than average. The company makes a lot of its environmental and fair trade commitments . Founder, Howard Schultz, used to talk about the "third space" – somewhere that was neither home nor office. The focus on liberal…

By Quentin Langley Let us consider two people. The first is a comedian and activist. She is Jewish and was born in the state where Donald Trump saw his biggest fall in support compared with Romney or McCain. She was a vocal supporter of "Occupy" and sought the Green Party's nomination for President in 2012.…

By Quentin Langley  It has been a week since Southwest Airlines lost a passenger in a most dramatic fashion: Jennifer Riordan was literally sucked out of a plane mid-flight.  Looking back at this incident we see all the features of Twenty First Century crisis: The key one is live vlogging. As other airlines have discovered,…

By Quentin Langley Most of the time, people recognize advertising. When I am discussing marketing or public relations with students new to the topic, we normally start by using advertising as a point of reference. If you work in PR or marketing then perhaps you have an elderly relative who is convinced that you are…

By Quentin Langley The 2015 movie Steve Jobs grossed $34 million, won two Golden Globes and was nominated for two Oscars. It is unusual for critically acclaimed movies to feature real business people – or even fictional ones – in a positive light, but even this movie fell far short of 2010’s The Social Network…