Brand Hacker™

Global organisations, private companies, governments, politicians, celebrities, even charities f*ck up and it’s amazing how quickly we all forget ~ sometimes the repercussions are truly catastrophic. This collection pokes some fun, whilst serving as a serious reminder that a brand’s reputation is matched only by the integrity of the people behind it.

The collection

Airbnb™
The Airbnb symbol, or ‘Bélo’ as it’s less affectionately known, takes the form of an upside down paper clip which also happens to looks like a pair of t*ts and a bra.

Barclays
What Barclays did was very complicated ~ it involved the London inter-bank offered rate (Libor) and its equivalent in Europe (Euribor), which reflect the rates that banks lend to one another overnight. Robert Peston, business editor at the BBC, explains: “Barclays has owned up to something very simple and, many would say, profoundly shocking it lied about the interest rate it was having to pay to borrow.” Barclies ~ fluent in lying.

Biffa™
Liverpudlian for cigarette ~ giz a bifta laa!

British Petroleum
A US federal investigation into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the nation’s worst offshore oil disaster, concluded that a last-ditch safety device on the underwater well had multiple failures, it wasn’t tested properly, and still poses a risk for many rigs drilling today. The report uncovered faulty wiring, a dead battery and a bent pipe in the hulking device that led to 172m gallons of oil being dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. Bast*rds.

BLM™
Adidas blocked the Black Lives Matter movement from trademarking a design that featured three parallel stripes. They said in a filing that the BLM designs would create confusion with its own brand branding. Three stripes don’t matter Adidas!

Burger King
Burger King revealed some of its burgers contained horse meat. Their supplier had also provided horse meat to Aldi, Asda, Tesco and the Co-op. Is it a beef ting fam?

The Conran Shop
Tory donor and Conran shop owner Javad Marandi was revealed as a key figure linked to a major money laundering operation targeted by the National Crime Agency. Bank records showed he either owned or was connected to companies involved in a ‘criminal enterprise’ moving vast sums of illicit funds around the world and into the UK. Conman?

Co-op
Paul Flowers, former non-executive chairman of the Co-operative Bank and (crystal) methodist minister, was convicted of possessing crack cocaine, methamphetamine and ketamine ~ not to mention his alleged use of rent boys.

Coutts
MP Nigel Farage was described by Coutts (The King’s Bank), as a ‘disingenuous grifter’ who promoted ‘xenophobic, chauvinistic and racist views’. Dame Alison Rose (Group CEO) later confessed to being the source of a BBC report and admitted to a “serious error of judgement” in discussing Farage’s account with a BBC journalist. Bunch of…

Meta
Meta was fined a record breaking €1.2bn for mishandling people’s data when transferring it between Europe and the US. It is the largest fine imposed under the EU’s GDPR privacy law. Data is more valuable than oil, and more slippery in Meta’s hands.

Greggs
Colin Gregg, the who helped build the family bakery chain, was jailed for 13.5 years having been convicted of nine counts of indecent assault on young boys over a period of decades. The judge said: “It is true you have enjoyed great wealth, privilege and social standing. You are a sophisticated predatory paedophile.”

Extinction Rebellion
Time’s running out ~ we need an extension.

Facebook
Global Science Research (GSR) harvested data from millions of Facebook users without consent. The privacy policy allowed apps to access private details about users’ friends ~ enabling GSR to gather information on 87 million users. These details were later sold to Cambridge Analytica, who used it to create targeted ads for political purposes. Schmucks.

Instagram
Under age accounts. Violation of privacy data laws. Sexualised content of children placed on adult feeds. Allegations of election-interference. Lawsuits for ignoring the impact on teenage mental health. Hate speech. Propaganda. Extremism. Terrorism. Violence. Organised crime. Sexual services. Pornography. Firearm sales. Black market drugs. Bullying. Harassment. Abuse. Addiction. Self-harm. Shaddow-banning. Mutilation. Rape. Racism. Suicide. Murder. Death. All in a days scrolling as profits soar (2023: $49.8bn). Satan’s work?

HSBC
HSBC admitted staff at its global subsidiaries laundered billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and pariah states. It’s good to know the world’s local bank is doing valuable work in the community ~ dope.

Aldi
Scottish for giving it some.

Lego
Lego was accused of promoting sexism when one of its play-sets included a sticker depicting a construction worker shouting ‘Hey Babe!!’. Critics said it promoted catcalling and set a bad example for young boys. Get yer Legover!

Microsoft
CrowdStrike’s Falcon system, designed to prevent cyberattacks, had a faulty update that led to 8.5 million customers using Microsoft Windows caught in a boot loop. The global outage caused thousands of flights to be delayed or cancelled, it affected the NHS service, and contactless payments failed to work. Microsoft blamed the EU for the massive sh*t show.

McDonalds
We are what we eat.
Courtesy of maentis.com

New Order
The updated classic album.

AC/DC
Obsessive compulsive damnation.

Overfinch
Luxury redefined.

Post Office
The Post Office prosecuted more than more than 700 sub-postmasters for stealing because of a ‘bug’ in their Horizon computer system manufactured by Fujitsu. It’s been called the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of justice.

Purdue Pharma
Purdue Pharma manufactured pain medicines such as fentanyl and OxyContin which produces a euphoric effect similar to that associated with heroin use. The Sackler family (owners of Purdue) developed aggressive marketing tactics persuading doctors to prescribe OxyContin. As sales of their drugs soared, so did the number of people dying from overdoses. From 1999 to 2020, nearly 841,000 people died from overdoses in the US, with prescription and illicit opioids responsible for 500,000 of those deaths. The Sacklers have been described as ‘the worst drug dealers in history’ ~ no members of the family have been arrested for the deaths caused by their opioids.

P&O
800 employees received a short video message in which they were told “Your final day of employment is today”. The company knowingly broke the law when it fired its workers without any formal notice and replaced them with cheaper agency workers. P&O, short-hand for…

Supreme
Laughably expensive clobber ~ we’re not stupid.

VW
US regulators discovered VW were using a software hack in nearly 500,000 diesel-powered cars to make them appear to run cleaner in emissions tests than they do in real-world conditions. VW said the software could affect over 11 million cars worldwide ~ das awful.

Wonga
The Archbishop of Canterbury wanted competition, not legislation, to put the payday lending firm Wonga out of business by helping credit unions with premises and expertise. Despite denying any involvement, the Church Pension Fund invested in the venture capital firm Accel Partners which inadvertently helped raised funds for Wonga. God’s work or the devil’s doing?