About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of outrage culture on advertising and brand decisions, using a specific ad controversy as a case study.

This week's episode is about what happens when outrage travels faster than context. We recorded this one live in Toronto, and it started with an ad. Good Good, one of golf's biggest YouTube channels, created a 60-second campaign with Callaway about a golfer becoming dangerously obsessed with his driver. A few seconds were clipped, reframed as domestic violence, and suddenly the internet was furious. Callaway pulled the campaign, apologized, pledged $1 million to women's golf, and left the smaller creator brand holding the bag. But when you watch the full ad, the story looks very different. That became the jumping-off point for a bigger conversation about whether brands have become too afraid of criticism to stand behind their own decisions, and what happens to creativity when every campaign is designed around avoiding the worst possible interpretation. On the episode: ● Why the Good Good x Callaway ad became an internet scandal, and how clipping has created an entire economy around manufacturing outrage. ● Why Callaway's biggest mistake may not have been approving the ad, but panicking when people criticized it. ● Why Target's controversial Halloween costume deserved a different…

Topics covered

• outrage culture
• advertising
• brand management
• social media
• creativity
• public relations

Keywords

• outrage
• advertising scandal
• brand criticism
• social media backlash
• creativity in marketing
• public response
• corporate decisions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Good Good, Callaway, Target, Sézane, Meta

Places: Toronto

More episodes of The Art of the Brand

• Fake Outrage, Branding Fumbles and Real Money: The Business of Pretending Online · August 27, 2026 · 34 min
• AI is making everyone sound the same · August 26, 2026 · 60 min
• Did ChatGPT Design Instagram's New Logo? · August 24, 2026 · 55 min
• AI can create everything except this · August 13, 2026 · 1h 8m
• The Motorcycle Crash That Started a Wellness Empire · August 10, 2026 · 1h 15m
• Why attention is the new brand currency · July 29, 2026 · 1h 0m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Art of the Brand podcast page.