The calves of Samuel A Maverick were without brand and from this negligent rancher came our term for “masterless” and our 1957 James Garner TV Show, which actually featured Jack Kelly in more episodes than Garner.  Ironically, “Warner Brothers had a policy of recycling scripts through each of their television series to save money on writers, literally changing only the names and the locales while leaving the rest of the dialogue more or less intact”, thus rendering Maverick a brand.

On the Thursday Night edition of Sunday Night Football on NBC (that used to be Monday Night Football on ABC), in the few seconds between the constant deifications of Packer now Jet Bert Favre (if his last name is pronounced Farve, then is first name has to be Bert), the Belgian Company Budweiser, ran a commercial for their new “BL” beer.  Can I sue them?  I don’t drink and they are compromising my brand.  Or are they making BL more famous?  There is a PR maxim that, in the long run “All Publicity is Good Publicity”  So, maybe, all I need to do is get some copies of my book to that bar in Illinois called SomeplacElse and we’ll have some real marketing synergy going on.

The NFL game was followed immediately by “Maverick” John McCain’s acceptance speech. While I will leave all political commentary and thoughts on the Obama Brand to my good friend Char I must point out that just as Mr. McCain was speaking about the need to shake up the educational system, the camera panned to a young man holding a “McCain the Mavrik” sign.   Perhaps someone had “texted”(that’s the past tense of texting right?) the word to him.

As I was contemplating all this branding I got an email from Suzanna at Great Adaptations who told me to go for a walk and figure out “Who I am”. Then, when it came time to write my next blog entry, I could focus with laser like precision on MY message.  When it comes to putting your Brand onto the internet this is excellent advice.   

Of course, if you consider yourself  “One that refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter” you still have to figure out WHO YOU ARE lest you end up “an unbranded range animal that has become separated from its herd and is now considered the property of the first person who brands it.”