In a story that’s not 100% unique in the world of celebrities (think Puff Daddy, Puffy, P Diddy, Diddy, and so on and so on), NFL player Chad Johnson of the Cincinnati Bengals legally changed his last name to Ocho Cinco (that’s eight five in English, which stands for his jersey number, 85).
Sure it’s a publicity stunt that celebrities love to use to draw attention to themselves and create a unique brand for themselves that can be dubbed as narcisistic, but it’s also a great way to drive word-of-mouth marketing. The result for Ocho Cinco has been tons of press, …read more

Conservation.org tapped Harrison Ford to deliver some public service announcements. My first reaction to this, celebrities always drive attention to causes, so it’s not necessarily bad to put the Harrison Ford brand together with a conservation message. The common sense stops right there though.
Check out the PSA below. It’s confusing and not so much “painful” in a good way as was intended as I’d say it’s “uncomfortable” in a weird way.

Your thoughts?
Tags: Harrison Ford, cause marketing, branding, advertising, conservation.org

Lindsay Lohan started out as a child star but quickly fell prey to the wonders of Hollywood. She became a paparazzi favorite and landed in rehab after developing a bad reputation on set and off.
Enter manager and mother Dina Lohan who has long been called a crazy backstage mother living vicariously through her daughter. Dina’s been spotted out on the town with Lindsay more than once, and her public behavior has appeared less than perfect as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

Let’s face it.  The media loves to go on and on about Paula Abdul’s bizarre behavior.  I have to admit that I don’t have time to watch American Idol anymore, but I certainly remember her odd comments.  Today, the media was in overdrive after Paula made some comments on this week’s “American Idol“.
Image details: Idol Gives Back 2008 – Show served by picapp.com
Turns out, she made a comment to one of the contestants that referred to another contestant’s performance.  Unfortunately, that contestant hadn’t performed yet, so unless she’s psychic, she must have seen that contestant’s performance in advance.  Alas, the …read more

One of the most valuable assets of any company is its brand, from its brand name to its brand image, message and everything in between. Protecting that brand should be a top priority at all times.
Today, Aretha Franklin provides an example companies should follow in terms of protecting a brand. Everyone knows Aretha Franklin has been dubbed the Queen of Soul, and Aretha really likes that title. She owns that title, and she doesn’t want anyone to forget it. So when she didn’t get a big enough nod from Beyonce Knowles during her Grammy performance, she spoke up.

What do you think? Can Paula Abdul effectively relaunch her career after this taped performance at the Super Bowl last night?

I was actually surprised. The song will probably be very popular at clubs. It has a great dance sound. Will she be able to capitalize on this exposure and relaunch her brand as a popular pop star or will this be a one time thing?
Predictions, please.
Tags: Paula Abdul, Super Bowl, Paula Abdul Super Bowl, Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow, Paula Abdul new song, American Idol

YouTube has been the predominant player in online videos for awhile now, but Ice Cube thinks his status as a popular rapper will help his new user-generated content site – UVNTV (that’s U View Network Television). Ice Cube’s site will actually be different from YouTube in that UVNTV will provide network television quality programming with videos, music and shows being available in addition to user-generated content. The site operates using technology provided by Microsoft.
So far, Snoop Dog and Diddy (Sean Combs) have launched their own channels on UNTV, but anyone can launch their own channel as long as they share …read more

It seems not a day goes by that Britney Spears is not in the news for some kind of bizarre behavior that further destroys her once powerful brand. I started to wonder how a brand can spiral downward so quickly, so I did a search for a Britney Spears timeline after she met Kevin Federline and her life slowly ruined her business and marketing brand.
I found a great timeline from MTV that shows the sequence of events that chipped away at her brand bit by bit until it got to the state it is today.

There was a time when having the American Idol brand name attached to something meant instant success.  The reality TV series has been one of the most popular programs on television for years now, but is the American Idol star beginning to fade?  Has the brand that once seemed infallible becoming diluted?
Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood and more American Idol winners have earned great fame and fortune from their appearances on American Idol, but that success doesn’t seem to be coming for the winner of last season’s American Idol, Jordin Sparks, whose first album only sold 119,000 copies debuting …read more

I thought I’d follow up on my professional sports branding post from yesterday with a post about the quintessential Major League Soccer brand – David Beckham.  One of my favorite bloggers (and Brandcurve guest blogger), Gab Goldenberg of SEO ROI turned me onto Jason Peck’s blog where I found a post that lists a number of interesting statistics demonstrating the Beckham Effect.