A high-speed world with fake news: brand managers take warning
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-12-2018-2163 |
| Published date | 13 November 2019 |
| Pages | 234-245 |
| Date | 13 November 2019 |
| Author | Mark Peterson |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
A high-speed world with fake news: brand
managers take warning
Mark Peterson
Department of Management and Marketing, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA
Abstract
Purpose –In an increasingly dangerous era for brands because of the emergence of fake news on the internet, brand managers need to know what
is happening with fake news. This study aims to present perspectives on how to cope in an era of fake news.
Design/methodology/approach –The author provides a general review of fake news and what its sudden rise means for brand managers.
Findings –The study highlights the importance of context for news and the role of institutions, such as businesses and governments . The study calls
brand managers to slow down in the high-speed world of the infosphere to preserve the integrity of their brands.
Research limitations/implications –The study is limited by its time frame as the internet continues to evolve. However, for times when fake news
presents a threat to brands and other institutions, the study is relevant.
Practical implications –Brand managers need to slow down their activity levels just as savvy readers need to slow down their own reading on the
internet. By doing this, brand managers will be better able to defend their brands in an era characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and
ambiguity (VUCA).
Social implications –The study suggests that resistance to fake news and its pernicious effects can be improved by taking an approach to
processing content on the internet characterized by the scientific method. In this way, a context for news can be derived and fake news can be
identified. In this way, societal trust can be improved.
Originality/value –This study is original because it analyzes the implications of fake news for brand managers and presents the most workable
steps for identifying fake news.
Keywords VUCA, Technology, Brand management, Fake news, Disinformation, News literacy
Paper type Conceptual paper
Brand managers today work in a world that can be said to be
volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA)
(Schoemaker et al.,2018). VUCA is an acronym originally
coined by the US military but has applicability to business
environments. While most brand managers do not contend
with VUCA environments each day, they need to be aware of
what unexpected shiftsin marketplace dynamics might mean to
their brands. In this new era for brand managers, the “V”in
VUCA is most germane and challenging, as the specter of
volatility in the environment for firms now looms ominouslyas
illustratedin the following two examples.
In August 2017, Starbucks suddenly realized a person
motivated by politics had targeted the firm when tweets
advertising “Dreamer Day”spread rapidly across the internet
(tweeting that Starbucks was supposedly giving out free
Frappuccinos to undocumented migrants in the USA) (Kuchler,
2017). Apparently, the idea for the hoax began at the message
andimage-boardwebsite4Chanwhenoneuserposted“How
about we meme ‘Undocumented Immigrant Day’at Starbucks
into existence? Could cripple their business a bit.”With current
photo-altering software, a person added #BorderFreeCoffee and
the Twitter brand logo to a barista photo that was then shared
online. Not long after this, a text story had been fabricated and
then taken up into some of the social-news-aggregation websites,
which present what is trending on the internet. This fake news or
disinformation –information that is deliberately false or
misleading (Vaidhyanathan, 2018,p.185)–was then tweeted
and retweeted as other websites picked up the “story”(Kuchler,
2017).
In March 2017, a hacker briefly took over fast-food giant
McDonald’s Twitter account. The hacker tweeted derogatory
remarks about US President Donald Trump and endorsed a
return of former US PresidentBarack Obama (Whitten, 2017).
McDonald’s Corporation took down the rogue tweet twenty
minutes after the hacker posted it, but with viewers taking
screen captures of the image and sharing these through the
internet, the rogue tweet became content for a wide array of
media outlets reachingmillions of readers.
In both of these instances, major brands became the victims
of technology-enabled persons with intent to use the brands’
reputation for their own twisted purposes. While politics
motivated the persons behind these episodes, hopes of
increasing ad revenue or attention-seeking motivate much fake
news (Kuchler, 2017). The response from both Starbucksand
McDonald’s was swift, but such episodes cloud the image of
these firms in the mind of many in the public and raise doubts
Thecurrentissueandfulltextarchiveofthisjournalisavailableon
Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
29/2 (2020) 234–245
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-12-2018-2163]
Received 12 December 2018
Revised 12 May 2019
20 September 2019
Accepted 1 October 2019
234
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