A doppelgänger brand image is a collection of disparaging images and stories about a brand which are circulated in popular culture by a fairly loosely organized network of anti-brand activists, bloggers and opinion leaders. Such images are most likely to be spread via social media, blogs, and websites of anti-brand activists such as Adbusters. They are often intended to highlight ethical issues regarding the product advertised and are commonly associated with the brand's lack of authenticity. The purpose of creating doppelgänger brand images is to expose the true nature/effects of the company at stake, since it is believed to promote untruthful claims about its products. A 2012 study concluded that doppelgänger brand images were able to negatively affect sales, because they created a perception of mistrust in the minds of the customers. A 2006 study concluded that, Doppleganger has an impact on emotional brand image of a brand. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 70, No. 1, pp. 50-64 In a 2006 paper, Craig J. Thompson, Aric Rindfleisch and Zeynep Arsel suggest that doppelgänger brand images are a sign that "an emotional-branding story is beginning to lose its cultural resonance", and can be useful as a warning symptom. Usually when customers perceive a brand is inauthentic they are more motivated to create Doppelgänger brand image.Generally customers perceive a brand as inauthentic because of two primary reasons. The first reason is imitation-when customers start to feel that a particular brand is trying to copy the basic ideology of another brand they lose trust in that brand. The second case is when there is a mismatch between the existing image of the brand and the promotional activities of the brand. This happened in the case of McDonalds when they tried to portray themselves as an eating joint with healthy food choices. Usually, the brands that face Doppelganger brand campaigns are the big and more popular ones, which have a large customer base and more reach.
Examples
The "Joe Chemo" campaign, an internet campaign created by an organization called Adbusters, criticized the product message of Camel cigarettes, and emphasized the harmful effects of smoking, by depicting the company's camel mascot as "a camel who wishes he'd never smoked cigarettes".. In this doppelganger image the confident, cool and popular Joe Camel is replaced by this sick, depressed and lonely Joe Chemo. Shortly after this doppelganger campaign began, Joe Camel was withdrawn from the market.
McDonald's is often criticized because of its harmful effects on human health. To illustrate its negative effect, the McDonald's logo was redesigned as "McDiabetes". For this DBI, there is a long running hashtag on twitter..
In 2015, a designer reinterpreted the Pepsi logo to represent a corpulent man. The intention was to emphasize the direct relation between consumption of sweetened soft drinks and obesity.
After General Motors launched the Hummer H2 in the mid-2000s, a creative viral Internet campaign called "FUH2" began. This campaign concentrated not only on the brand itself, but also on its owners who were portrayed as savages who cared about style more than the environment.
Nike's logo and slogan appear in several images either altered or adjusted, often highlighting the company's use of sweat shop labor.
Following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, several satirical logos reflecting a negative image were born out of a contest sponsored by Greenpeace.
The South Butt was an attempt to commercialize a parody of The North Face's brand.
The Indian Premier League major cricket sporting event was severely criticized as Indian Puppet League, after revelations came out in 2015 regarding the match fixing and mis-governance issues associated with it. This negative portrayal of brand affected the events popularity and the credibility of associated players. The Board of Control for Cricket in India was also severely affected.
