This has to be the most tone-deaf strain of journalism I've seen made on the topic. Everyone knows that brands (personal and commercial) aren't cool. They aren

This has to be the most tone-deaf strain of journalism I've seen made on the topic. Everyone knows that brands (personal and commercial) aren't cool. They aren't our friends. They're self-interested and often insincerely masquerade as being in the public interest, whilst polluting social consciousness with noise. They are also often humorless and tone-deaf. Well calibrated people don't and shouldn't care about the safety of brands from ridicule. And, it happens that ridiculing and embarrassing brands is quite amusing. Surely even the worst journalists who churn out advertorials see that there is no sympathy to be had here by going "think of those poor, suffering brands bu-hu".