Looks like it's good cop bad cop in the war against fast food brands. First, First Lady Michelle Obama politely insisted that America’s restaurant operators do more for their role in contributing to childhood obesity. Now, a vegetarian group is launching a campaign accusing McDonald's of killing people with its food by causing heart disease. The commercial ends with a McDonald's logo and the tagline pun "I was loving' it." You can watch the commercial above.

Do groups like this really think these kind of commercials ever reach the intended targets? A related and more important question: will McDonald's give them the attention they so clearly desperately want by making a big deal out of it?Continue reading...

British graffiti artist (and self-described art terrorist) Banksy is well-known for taking on brands such as Tesco, which he incorporates above (and has co-opted for an anti-Warhol soup can) or British Telecom, which he attacked by taking an axe to a phone box (BT took it in stride). His latest target is another British brand, BP, which he spoofs with a whole new spin on "pier pressure." Check it out after the jump.Continue reading...

We recently looked at how New Jersey might try to rebrand Atlantic City as a world-class gambling destination rivaling Vegas. Turns out, New Jersey might have a bigger rebranding challenge — New Jersey.

A new Quinnipiac University survey found that half of New Jersey residents find MTV's show Jersey Shore "revolting." Those polled believe the show is damaging to the state's image. Also, they blame New York. Yet as every branding professional knows, define yourself or somebody else will define you.Continue reading...

It's the dream of many a brand manager, and now it appears it is coming true. After years of consumer comments on websites and social networks criticizing brands, companies are now fighting back, with lawsuits.

The New York Times tells the story of T&J Towing, which is suing a consumer who created a Facebook page slamming the brand. T&J claims the page hurt the brand and its business and it is seeking damages of $750,000.Continue reading...

Sometimes it’s difficult for brands to know exactly how to react when they’re targeted by aggressive environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs). You’d think that a major CPG brand like Nestle, which is a marketing powerhouse, might be better at guerrilla warfare with such groups – but Greenpeace just one-upped Nestlé.

Seems that the famously radical green group pulled one its patented stunts on Nestlé by posting a video on YouTube whose purpose was to draw attention to Greenpeace’s opposition to the company’s practices for obtaining palm oil that goes into Kit Kat and other Nestlé candy bars.

Greenpeace says that Nestlé disrupts rainforests in Indonesia in order to plant oil palms. Felling such “old-growth” forests is a common green-NGO complaint against pulp, paper and food companies.Continue reading...

The rivalry between Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig took an ugly turn this week, with Weight Watchers filing a lawsuit against Jenny Craig over “deceptive claims.”

The lawsuit came about after Jenny Craig aired a commercial alledging that its weight loss program enabled customers to lose more than two times as much weight as Weight Watchers’ participants.

The commercial's claim, however, was not supported by scientific proof, despite the pseudo laboratory and scientific atmosphere in the commercial. Yet one has to wonder if Jenny Craig's assertion is really the only feat of deceipt incurred or dispensed by either of these brands.Continue reading...

Another day, another dig at Hummer, the white hot epicenter of scorn from New York to Beijing. But environmentalists might want to check themselves: they may not have Hummer to kick around for much longer. And then what?

Brands are, of course, a set of attributes agreed upon by brand owner and consumers. And no brand may have suffered worse from the latter part of that arrangement than Hummer, the unthinking environmentalist's go-to brand shorthand for bad autoing. The brand is so synonymous with a lack of concern about the environment that it is assumed Hummer owners, while claiming they are attracted by the “American exceptionalism, rugged individualism, love of the frontier, community and freedom" characteristics of the brand, really just revel in the image of sticking it in Mother Nature's ear. Radical activist group Earth Liberation Front even set one Hummer dealership on fire several years ago.

But then there are facts.Continue reading...