Brand Entropy: When Reinvention Becomes Self-Destruction

We’re living in a strange time in branding—a time I call Brand Entropy.
Legacy brands are spinning out—desperate to stay relevant, wildly reinventing themselves until they become unrecognizable.

Take JLR with Jaguar. Once a symbol of British sophistication, now rebranded into a "Hunger Games", dystopian shell of itself. Agencies get fired. Blame shifts. Nothing feels grounded.

And HBO… sorry, MAX. From HBO GO to HBO MAX to just MAX? They threw away decades of brand equity—synonymous with prestige storytelling—because… why? MAX, because less = more, except when it isn't.
Oops, let’s bring it back.

Tropicana Brands Group’s 2009 redesign? Disaster. Sales dropped 20% in a month.

Gap’s 2010 logo change? Reversed in 6 days. Panic, not strategy.

So what’s going on?
Lately, I’ve been on a personal vision-quest of life. The science, spiritual, metaphysics, purpose of it all.

Then, I came across a podcast called THE TELEPATHY TAPES—about non-verbal autistic kids who seem to connect through shared consciousness. In Episode 9, a child named John Paul says: “Make your whole life about love.”

⛓️‍💥 That moment broke me wide open.
Host Ky Dickens defines love as “anything that unites.”
Then it hit me - LOVE is the opposite of entropy!

Branding today lives in a world full of division—speed over substance, noise over meaning.

And then there’s authenticity. A word I now cringe at—not because it’s wrong, but because it’s been hijacked to wallpaper over broken values, compromised strategy and shallow messaging.

Knowing who you are—as a person or a brand—is hard.
That’s why great brands reflect. They ask for help. They look inward. They ground themselves.

I (cautiously) love all of our 21st century, digital tools, including Gen, AI—but I treat it like a weapon. Or maybe like a car.

They can drive transformation or cause havoc and wreckage.
Used well, it amplifies human purpose.
Used wrong, it accelerates the noise—accelerates entropy.

So here’s the challenge for brand leaders:
Stand for something.
Fight for meaning.
Resist the chaos.
Unite people through truth.

I’m changing too—embracing the practice of Wabi Sabi—the Japanese idea of finding beauty in nature, creation and the humanness of imperfection.

Let’s stop trying to perfect everything by replacing it.
Instead—be humbled by the cracks.
See the beauty in what’s worn, true, and real.
Fix what’s broken. Love what’s weathered.
Honor what already is, instead of chasing what isn’t.

That’s authenticity. That’s where true brand connection lives.
Let’s make our brands—and our lives—about unity and love.

Not blow-hard, windy fluff-puffery, poopy-polish, pissy-performance.

Just love. ❤️