BrandSnark: Good Week/Bad Week for the Big Brands

Great Week: Amazon/Whole Foods – Within days of the Federal Trade Commission granting final approval to Amazon’s $13.7B takeover of the good-eating grocery chain, the company announced it will begin dropping prices on certain staples. Amazon Prime members will receive additional discounts at Whole Foods stores.  

Good Week: Ford The automaker announced it will form a new brand to sell all-electric cars in China in partnership with one of that country’s leading electric vehicle manufacturers. No truth to the rumor that the name Edsel is under consideration.

Worse Week: Johnson & Johnson – A California jury awarded a woman $417M, agreeing that her ovarian cancer was the result of decades of using J&J brand baby powder. The international mega-pharma giant received more unwanted publicity when it protested the state of Florida’s use of one of J&J’s drugs as part of its lethal-injection cocktail. In related news, I once cried after getting baby shampoo in my eye despite the bogus “no tears” promise.