10 Branding Faceplants Worth Paying Attention To

Big names, bad moves. Yay! More for us!

Brands like Glossier, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok may have millions to spend, but their visibility puts every branding decision under a microscope—which makes them ripe for the picking.

Here are 10 big-brand faceplants—and what they can teach the rest of us.

1. The Personal Brand Has Become a Performance

We’ve reached peak self-promo on LinkedIn. Everyone’s “humbled to announce,” or making every promotion sound like a revelation. It’s exhausting.

📍 Think: “This isn’t just a new role—it’s a new chapter.”

✅Being visible isn’t the same as being valuable. Your job isn’t your brand.

2. Glossier: When Your Founder Is the Brand

Emily Weiss made Glossier a cult DTC beauty brand by being front and center—until the shine wore off. Leadership turnover, layoffs, and vague mission shifts followed.

📍 Think: If your brand can’t live without you, it’s not really a brand.

✅ Founders bring magic, but they also burn out. Build a brand that can stand the test of time and inevitable transitions.

3. X (Twitter): Rebranding Without Reason

Elon Musk turned Twitter into X overnight. The brand equity? Torched. The new name? Unsearchable. The vision? Unclear.

📍 Think: If your audience is confused, your brand is broken.

✅ A rebrand doesn’t work if no one knows what the brand is anymore.

4. TikTok: Don’t Build a Brand on Rented Land

With bans looming in the U.S., creators and companies who built their entire brand presence on TikTok are scrambling.

📍 Think: You need more than one door for people to find you.

✅ Platforms come and go. Your strategy shouldn’t.

5. SKKN by Kim: Medical-Grade… What Now?

Kim Kardashian’s luxury skincare line launched with high prices, minimalist packaging, and zero clarity. Was it cosmetic? Clinical? Who was it for?

📍 Think: If people don’t get it, they won’t buy it.

✅ Style without context just leaves people guessing.

6. The Beige Blob of AI Branding

Brands are using AI to crank out content faster than ever—and surprise: it all sounds exactly the same.

📍 Think: Blog posts titled “5 Ways to Maximize Your Potential,” written in a tone so BLAH it could belong to anyone.

✅ Your voice is your brand. AI might help you write. It can’t help you connect.

7. Cool Brands: All Look, No Point

There’s a whole genre of brands (hi, Everlane, Parachute, Brooklinen) that are clean, pastel, and totally forgettable.

📍 Think: Pale packaging, sans-serif fonts, and copy that says everything and nothing: “Redefining comfort. For modern living.”

✅ “Modern” isn’t a message. It’s a vibe, not a value.

8. WeightWatchers: Rebrand, Regret, Repeat

WW dropped the word “Weight” to distance itself from diet culture—then partnered with a telehealth company to sell Ozempic. The backlash was swift.

📍 Think: “We think this is a great opportunity for us to build out our business in the obesity management space.” Wait, what?

✅ You can’t rebrand as body-positive, then cash in on weight-loss drugs. Your message has to match your model.

9. Nonprofits That Sound Like Startups (And Vice Versa)

Many smaller nonprofits are adopting startup language—talking about “disruption,” “scale,” and “accelerators” without saying what they do.

📍 Think: “We’re a high-impact initiative advancing equity through collaborative, community-based frameworks.” (Great. But what do you actually do?)

✅ Buzzwords ≠ branding. Clarity builds trust. No one funds what they can’t follow.

10. Brand Fatigue Is Real—and You're Not Helping

Every founder is “impact-driven.” Every brand is “authentic.” Consumers are tired.

📍 Think: “We’re disrupting the space with a bold, authentic solution that drives real change.” (You’ve heard it a hundred times. So has your audience.)

✅ Stand for something. Say it. Mean it. And say it again and again and again.

That's a Wrap

Remember, big brands get the headlines, but they don’t always get it right.

The advantage of being smaller, scrappier, or still in the build phase? You can build something sharper, smarter, and more honest—because no one’s forcing you to play it safe.

Watch their moves. Learn from their missteps. But don’t mistake money or scale for clarity.

That’s yours to own.

💬 Seen a great brand faceplant lately? Send it my way. I’m collecting the good, the bad, and the baffling. Hit reply or leave a comment.

1. If you subscribe, you'll get all my articles for free. The only thing that isn't free is my sage hourly Brand Therapy™ advice and wisdom. No paywall, no gatekeeping. Subscribe and jump right in. If the spirit moves you to support me with a paid subscription—thank you. It keeps the good stuff coming and means a lot.

2. Not up for a subscription? Totally fine. But if you like what you see, buy me that double espresso I’m so fond of.

3. Oh, and one more thing—if you want to help spread the word, it won’t cost a dime. Hit the heart to like, the speech bubble to comment, or the arrows to restack (“restack” means share in Substackland). It helps more people find me.