HOW TO BOSS AROUND YOUR BRAND

Unless you’ve been quarantined due to coronavirus while simultaneously cut off from the internet and TV – it’s likely you will have seen Joe Lycett’s latest stunt. 

The comedian, and host of Channel 4’s consumer show ‘Got Your Back’, has changed his name by deed poll to Hugo Boss, in protest against the fashion house for sending cease and desist letters to small companies who use the word “boss” commercially.

The Hugo Boss (fashion house, not Joe) may well have legitimate legal grounds, according to their trademark agreement, but is it worth the negative PR implications? While a celebrity won’t pick up on and publicise every cease and desist letter, there have been lessons they could have learned….

Way back in 2012, a Hollywood film firm accused a Southampton pub named The Hobbit (great pub by the way, would recommend the Legolas cocktail) of copy infringement, as it prepared to launch the film franchise by the same name. Cue stars of the screen Stephen Fry and Sir Ian McKellen saving the day by paying the copyright license fee on the pub’s behalf. Let’s hope that if there was a Wizard of Oz remake and action was taken against a certain PR agency, one of the stars might do the same….

Trying to get back into consumers’ good books, Hugo Boss (fashion house, not Joe) has released a dry but fair corporate statement that clarifies its position and shares context. But…no matter how reasonable, legal, timely and in line with their tone of voice it is – the damage is done. 

As Maya Angelou said, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. 

In this case – Joe Lycett’s stunt ties in with consumers’ emotions more closely. We consumers want to ‘punch up’ – take a swipe at the big man. People will have got behind the artist formerly known as Joe, and due to the fast pace of the news agenda, have since moved on with their lives. 

But what could have been done differently? Netflix clearly thought about this consumer culture more than Hugo Boss (fashion house, not Joe) did, when they felt they had ground to share a cease and desist letter to an ‘unofficial’ pop up bar called The Upside Down Bar. “Look, I don’t want you to think I’m a total wastoid,” wrote Netflix, “But unless I’m living in the Upside Down, I don’t think we did a deal with you for this pop-up”. 

In an environment where every individual can publish their opinion online quickly - being more human in how you communicate is just as important in responding to a crisis, as it is avoiding one. It’s impossible to not refer to how KFC reacted to the biggest disaster in fried chicken history here, with the now infamous ‘FCK’ creative. They tackled it head on, ‘punched up’ at themselves and going back to Maya Angelou – people remember how they felt when they saw it.

While not every brand has the tone of voice or assets to hand that Netflix or KFC have – it’s clear that the PR team should be counselled earlier. A PR team will consider how influencers or media may react and could advise. It’s easy to sound like South Park’s ‘Captain Hindsight’, but if the approach was interrogated by more stakeholders earlier on – this might not have happened.