Post by Piotr Jakubowski
Visit his blog at:
http://piotrj.wordpress.com/

Identity theft has been threatening society for years, and now this battle has become an issue for brands on the internet.

A few weeks ago I was following two different characters on Twitter – TheBKLounge and CWalken. The way both accounts were set up, followers were lead to believe that The Burger King and Christopher Walken were on the other end of the wire. Both accounts were, however, revealed to be false and the owners fessed up to their exploits (Caleb Kramer even wrote a post about it).

One of the most flattering things that can happen to a brand is that it can be hijacked by the consumer. Essentially, the development of the image and direction of the brand is in the hands of the consumer. This creates a cult-like status and develops consumers that exhibit loyalty beyond reason.

The two cases are an example of brand-jacking going slightly too far. They blur the lines between love and obsession and provide proof that brands can lose control on the Internet. This also proves to be dangerous, as brandjacked entities could prove to be sending the wrong message or one that the company does not want to reveal.

As the number and scope of social media vehicles increases, brands are left with no choice but to begin to embrace them. Without doing this, they will not be able to retain what little control they have left of their image online.

So when is obsessing over a brand taking it too far?

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Filed under: Piotr Jakubowski, Social Media, Videos, Writers, identity crisis, Twitter