BrandSnark: Good Week/Bad Week for the Big Brands

Wild Week: American Airlines The carrier announced this week that it will ban “hoofed, horned, creepy and crawly” creatures from flying as emotional support animals. Winged and pawed creatures are apparently still allowed, but passengers will need to notify American 48 hours in advance and must present a note from mental health provider. My komodo dragon “Sigmund” and I are not happy.

Rotten Week: Bumble Bee – A federal grand jury has indicted CEO Christopher Lischewski in connection with a price-fixing scam that landed Bumble Bee, Starkist and Chicken-of-the-Sea in the Department of Justice’s frying pan in 2016. If indicted, Lischewski faces up to 10 years in prison… where he can pretty much count on a steady diet of – you guessed it – tuna salad.

Worse Week: Cambridge Analytica Citing assets of less than $500K, liabilities of up to $10M and as many as 50 creditors, the embattled data firm – under fire over allegations that it misused the personal data of millions of Facebook users during its work on the 2016 Trump campaign – has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in New York. The Trump campaign: also known as the Defense Attorney’s Relief Act of 2018.