January 2026 - Branding Strategy Insider

This past weekend, more than sixty Minnesota-based CEOs signed an open letter calling for “immediate de-escalation” and cooperation after unrest connected to federal immigration enforcement operations and two fatal shootings. The letter is restrained. It doesn’t perform moral certainty. It doesn’t posture as a conscience. It doesn’t sound like the world can be solved in a paragraph. It reads more like an attempt to hold the center of the room while everyone in it is...

A recent furor over Tottenham Hotspur’s use of “Can’t Smile Without You” is, on the surface, an easy story. A songwriter, who happens to support Arsenal, objects to Spurs playing ‘his’ song. Lawyers mutter about licenses. Fans roll their eyes. Tabloids sharpen the rivalry angle. Case closed. Except it isn’t. Because beneath the banter sits a far more interesting and unresolved question: when does licensed use become cultural appropriation, and when does a brand’s legal...