A Brand Story

A hunting trip in the woods of Wisconsin. A son’s efforts to ease his mother’s suffering. A wife’s oath to fulfill a dream shared by a departed husband.

A brand’s origin story can be an effective marketing tool, connecting with consumers on a human level. And many companies are eager to share their “brand story” to show that they are about more than just selling products and making money.

But sometimes brands misrepresent their origins or, in their accounts of how they got started, overstate what their products are capable of. Below are some examples.

TideWe

TideWe claims on its website that its origins as a hunting apparel and equipment company trace back to a deer-hunting trip the two founders took “deep in the oak studded ridges of Western Wisconsin.” It was on this trip, the company asserts, where the TideWe brand was “born.”

But after receiving a tip from a reader, we could not find any connection – past or present – between the company and Wisconsin outside of the advertised origin story.

TideWe isn’t registered in the state and in fact several of its trademarks are owned by a Chinese company. Furthermore, TideWe has acknowledged that its hunting boots, while purportedly designed in the U.S., are “made in China.”

All of this raises serious doubts as to whether this consequential – and meticulously detailed – hunting trip ever actually happened. And when we brought our findings to the company last October, rather than confirm the authenticity of its “brand story,” it chose not to respond to our inquiry.

GT’s Kombucha

When GT’s Kombucha hit store shelves in 1995, an origin story about the drink helping the founder’s mother heal after being diagnosed with an “aggressive form of breast cancer” had been printed on every bottle. It was reportedly removed amid a wave of class-action lawsuits in the early to mid-2010s over allegations of unsubstantiated health claims.

However, in 2018 TINA.org found that a version of the origin story was still shared on the company’s website. In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson told us, “Laraine’s story is what happened in real life. The facts are the facts and that is the story … What happened to his mother Laraine was the inspiration for GT to start his company. This is the truth, plain and simple.”

But as a matter of law, companies cannot claim or even imply that a product can help treat cancer – or any medical condition for that matter – without having competent and reliable scientific evidence to back it up and FDA approval.

Following our inquiry, GT’s Kombucha removed language regarding Laraine’s miraculous recovery from its origin story posted on its website.

Linda & Rachel Boutique

On its website, Linda & Rachel told the inspiring story of a mother and daughter opening a boutique in Newport, Rhode Island, which had been “a dream shared with my late husband,” the mother wrote, adding:

Today, my daughter and I carry that legacy forward. Crafting timeless, heartfelt pieces inspired by resilience, beauty, and the warmth of Newport life.

It’s an inspiring story – if only it were true.

Prompted by a consumer tip, TINA.org earlier this year looked into the boutique’s origin story and purported Newport roots and did not find any evidence of an actual physical store located in the coastal Rhode Island town.

What we did find pointed to an overseas operation masquerading as a local boutique, including a Facebook page managed from France and the Netherlands, products shipped from China and website URLs containing foreign languages.

The scheme also had the hallmarks of AI, such as contrasting images of Rachel and a Facebook cover photo that misspelled the shop’s name.

The company did not respond to a request for comment on our findings.

The bottom line

As more brands integrate AI into their marketing, including through the use of “AI story generators,” origin stories may become even more convincing – if not more truthful. Consumers need to remain vigilant for signs of AI-generated content and inconsistencies in brand stories so that they can root out unreliable narrators.