Brands Behaving Badly Gold Medalist: British Petroleum (BP)

Ok, we all knew it was going here.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, we're going to do our best to add some insights on the BP disaster from a branding and brand strategy perspective.

Brands Behaving Badly Silver Medalist: Toyota

Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. If there was one company primed to dominate the U.S. auto market after the implosion of The Big 3, it was Toyota. It's not often that your top 3 competitors fall on their own swords simultaneously. Yet Toyota spent decades waiting for a moment like that to arrive and then fell right down with them.

Brands Behaving Badly Bronze Medalist: Lebron James

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"

Athletes are some of the most charismatic brands in the world. We care about them irrationally. In them we see our highest aspirations of achievement, fair play, right and wrong. And their brand strength directly affects their ability to charge a premium, not only as players, but as endorsers of other brands. In short, the most recognized athletes are often everything a great brand needs to be. 

Website RFP Best Practices for Nonprofits and Small Business

For anyone who's preparing a request for a proposal (RFP) for an interactive project, if you're looking for some guidance on strategies to improve your partner selection process, I'll share insights we've gained over the last 15 years responding to them. Much of this is common sense, but I hope it helps to have it reinforced here, in print and all in one place.

Announcing the First Brands Behaving Badly Awards

At the halfway mark, 2010 has been quite a year for brands behaving badly. Maybe it's always this way and I just haven't noticed before, but for a 6-month stretch, it certainly seems like some of the most recognized names in the world are hell-bent on trashing the most valuable asset they have, their reputation. With such a glut of significant brand flameouts, we've decided it's time for a special way to honor the world's most high profile destroyers of brand equity.