Branding anti-lessons from the Boy Scouts

The Boy Scouts have recently rebranded after diddling too many kids ruined their image. 

And you know what?

It’s as obvious as Adams why they decided to rebrand:

While they’re hiding behind wokeism and wanting to be more “inclusive” (sounds like grooming to me…), the real reason they’re rebranding is because they diddled a lot of poor, innocent boys. 

I find it disgusting. 

But also inevitable in a sense: 

Of fkn course predators are gonna try to work for businesses where they get access to kids. 

Anyway, I’m ranting… 

Back to the rebrand:

Another reason the rebrand (and reasoning for it) is absolutely despicable is because my step-sister is a girl scout. Girl scouts—partially because of their cookies, partially because they don’t diddle, and partially because the organization’s business acumen—have always been more prestigious than boy scouts. 

Rebranding the boy scouts to the Scouts of America is just a ploy to remove “boys” from the name to trick people into leaving their boys with them again. 

But it brings up a couple of important lessons and anti-lessons:

1. People will see right through your shit. The only way to kill a brand faster besides diddling kids is coddling to predators with a horseshyt move like this. 

2. The girl scouts have always been and will always be superior. They have a respectable brand where girls learn real actual life lessons, not learn how to end up on How To Catch A Predator. 

3. Don’t send your kids to the Scouts of America 

And the fourth point is something you can actually apply to your business:

There are a few “nukes” that forever ruin your brand’s image. 

The boy scouts one doesn’t need explained. And it’s the deadliest, for good reason. 

But biz owners drop mini nukes on their brand without even realizing. 

For example…

* Hiring copywriters who refer to “copy” as “copies” and hardly know the first thang about English let alone persuading people with the English language. (I was once offered a German gig for example, and I had to turn it down because I don’t know the first thing about German—and using Google translator doesn’t cut it because it seems fake, unnatural, and AI-written) 

* Hiring a third-party website designer who might make the website look “prettier” but also makes it 100x slower (which annihilates conversions more than a nuke would) 

* Hiring copywriters who make horseshyt claims (like “my wife didn't let me start an onlyfans, so now I'm selling my words” if you remember yesterday’s email) and could get you in trouble with the law

Many such cases of this playing out. 

Anyway, branding ain’t my speciality and even I know more than your average branding guru. 

If’n you want to use email as a staple in your brand (and create a horde of loyal customers and fans), hit reply, and let’s chat. 

I have another busy week full of travel, so if I can’t respond immediately, I will. 

John