Who would have ever thought that The Miss America Pageant would go SO LO?

After several years of a declining audience the Miss America Pageant has done several things to try & breathe new life into the BRAND. The pageant moved back to “The Boardwalk” at Atlantic City from Las Vegas, celebrities now judge The MA Pageant & they have now inked a deal with “Dick Clark Productions”. Starting with next year 2015 the show will be in the hands of “Dick Clark Productions”. No one could have ever imagined that just by going “SOLO” two brands would get SO Much press! You couldn’t have even planned that. Let’s see who capitalizes on this “genius gaffe”!

Who knew that Starbucks was just messing with you…or are they?

Now, this is just GENIUS! I really don’t think that Starbucks planned this awesome BRAND accident. If they did it’s absolutely brilliant. My daughter’s name is spelled A-R-I-E-L-L-E. So, I’m not sure where “Reari” came from. I have definitely seen it spelled a lot of different ways. Let’s start with the ER clerk who spelled her name REL-Arielle. Hmmmm… I digress. Anyway, think about the sheer number of times Starbucks has been tweeted, posted on Instagram, fb & other social media with no effort of their own. You have to admit that it turned out to be a very lucrative branding mistake! You may never get your name spelled correctly again. I think they’re onto it!

When Softness Steals The Show...

Then There Was "Keynote Scarf Guy," aka, Tommy Krul, a Netherlands-born and San Francisco-based gamer and co-founder of the gaming company Super Evil Megacorp. Krul unintentionally created quite a wave of unintentional branding single handedly for two brands. Even though he was onstage at the Apple announcement to demonstrate the gameplay of some gadgets; those watching were clearly distracted when his lovely infinity scarf stole the show. Did anyone really know who “Super Evil Megacorp” or “Scarf Guy” (for that matter) was before this? Even Downy is capitalizing on the mishap. O.k. make that a “3peat” of branding genius!

Tweeting With Mittens

Yep, that’s right! JC Penney’s stole another show of “Super” proportions. They hi-jacked the Super Bowl With Their Mittens! Make that their typos. The Department Store sent out two tweets at the beginning of the game which were plagued with typos. The brand purposely tweeted the “erroneous” tweets as part of an innocent little “tweeting with mittens” stunt for the Super Bowl. However, they went viral with posts from those thinking they had been hacked, were drunk or having some type of episode. It could be considered successful but for ALL the wrong reasons. The brand and it’s agency panicked & started the cleanup. I believe it was great BRAND Recognition regardless of what one’s opinion may be. JCP received more exposure than they could have ever planned. The parodies ensued.

The ALS Association