COMM 150: Branding issues

This would happen! As soon as I mention Ben & Jerry's ice cream as an example of good branding and a positive public image, along comes this week's issue of Newsweek with an article on a controversy involving the brand. It's a good example of why I enjoy teaching mass communications -- the world refuses to conform to my neat little academic theories! Let's read it and discuss it in class today (Wednesday). The branding issues it raises come up on the final exam.

While we're on the subject of branding, here's one of those email messages that ricochet around the Internet. I've cleaned it up slightly:

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:12:10 -0500
Subject: re: I Hate My Job
From: [deleted]

When you have an "I Hate My Job" day, try this:

On your way home from work, stop at your pharmacy and go to the thermometer section and purchase a rectal thermometer made by [a well-known health care products corporation]. Be very sure you get this brand. When you get home, lock your doors, draw the curtains and disconnect the phone so you will not be disturbed. Change into very comfortable clothing, make yourself a cocktail and sit in your favorite chair. Open the package and remove the thermometer. Now, carefully place it on a table or a surface so that it will not become chipped or broken. Now the fun part begins. Take out the literature from the box and read it carefully. You will notice that in small print there is a statement:

"Every Rectal Thermometer made by [the corporation] is personally tested."

Now, close your eyes and repeat out loud five times, "I am so GLAD I do not work in the thermometer quality control department at [the corporation]."

It's a cute joke, but unfortunately it's one of those urban legends ... stories that sound too good to be true because, well, they are too good to be true. Snopes.com, a website that researches the accuracy of urban legends, actually did a survey in a local pharmacy and reported that many thermometers carry a quality control message, but typically the literature in the package says something like the thermometer has been "calibrated for accuracy." It's still an example of careful brand managment to have a message in the box saying the contents have been tested.

You would recognize the name of the corporation. And even though I've deleted it (because as an old newspaper guy I'm nervous about naming it in a story that's not true), the fact it's mentioned in a widely circulated Internet joke is a good example of brand identification -- the way a firm gets identified in the public mind with the bandages, baby powder, thermometers and other products it puts on the market.