New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is one of the most-watched NFL players in the biz, particularly by folks who don’t care for the game. Being married to supermodel Gisele Bundchen will do that for a guy.

So it set tongues wagging Wednesday when Brady showed up at his weekly Wednesday press conference wearing a gray sweatshirt that had the Nike logo that is usually there on the sleeve covered up with a little piece of white tape. Nike, of course, is the official supplier of the NFL’s apparel. But, as NESN points out, Brady has a deal with competitor Under Armour.

Brady talked about plenty of things, such as his ailing right shoulder and the team’s 1-2 record. But he didn’t address how that piece of perfectly sized tape happened to get onto his sweatshirt right at that particular spot.

The Boston Globe's New England Patriots beat reporter, Shalise Manza Young, tweeted the photo above and later commented, "Brady has vested interest in UA - not just spokesman, gets share of profits."Continue reading...

Apple reportedly plans in-store branded boutiques at Target, while the iPhone's new Siri feature is said to double mobile data usage.

Porsche and Volkswagen compensation claims increase, while VW closes market cap gap with Toyota and looks to expand in China and India.

Dunkin' Donuts gears up to double number of U.S. locations.

Alcoa is scaling back.

Audi is adding models to win more U.S. market share.

Baskin-Robbins to expand to Vietnam.Continue reading...

The NFL has its Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Redskins. Major League Baseball has its Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians. And the state of Wisconsin has the Osseo-Fairchild High School Chieftains.

Team names that have been deemed offensive have been finding protests against them  in many forms over the years, many have stuck by their brands. While those professional sports teams pack some powerful brandage, high school sports have their own special power on a local level, and Chieftains past and present are feeling it a little extra these days.Continue reading...

On the heels of our report about the flagging influence of traditional news media comes a Washington Post story about the manner in which sports teams are scoring media coverage and protecting their brands.

Increasingly, professional, collegiate, and even high school sports teams are tightly controlling the way news about their team brands gets out to the public. In fact, many leagues, conferences and even teams have their own media operations. A lot of it has to do with the widespread availability of news and information via the Internet.Continue reading...

The last week of any year takes on an added level of significance as we naturally speculate about the past and future of our lives, both personal and professional. And for those of us who make a living in the branding industry, the following headline from last week should inspire us to reflect, and perhaps pour a stiff drink:

"Kraft Foods poised to sponsor Texas Stadium demolition."

Yes, this is a real story of a brand sponsoring the explosion of an old building. Yes, this is where we've come.

But wait, the comments from the sponsor make it even better worse.Continue reading...

Excuse me for a moment while I cover a Thanksgiving branding subject which I care much more deeply about than any retail brand woe: NFL Football.

For decades, Thanksgiving and football have combined for the "Thanksgiving Classic," a special set of games that occur throughout the Thursday holiday. Traditionally, the two games have been played by the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys. (Recently, a third game has been added to beef up the NFL's own network, the creatively-named "NFL Network.") The Lions, by some measure, have been playing the holiday game for 70-pus year. The Cowboys for over 50.

But prior to the Cowboys/Raders afternoon game, the CBS "NFL Today" pre-game show featured a fan text-in vote to determine "Should the NFL rotate the Thanksgiving Day Game?" The (statistically meaningless) result was 53% to 47% in favor of "yes."Continue reading...

The Redskins won this week. Twice. And both victories were sorely needed by the brand.

Faltering as an athletics program, the team "improved" its season record to three wins and six losses. But the big win was in the Supreme Court.

Or, actually, the victory was that the Supreme Court refused to hear the lawsuit against the team's "Redskins" logo. Filed by a handful of American Indians, the suit claims that the name is racially insensitive.Continue reading...