When backlash strikes, brands should think like artists

When Bad Bunny takes the stage at the NFL Super Bowl halftime show on February 8, the world will watch two powerful brands unite to celebrate the power of global culture.

Sounds like the right move for the NFL, right? After all, Bad Bunny is not only a pretty safe choice for a family-friendly broadcast, but he’s also Spotify’s most streamed artist of 2025, which is important for an event that relies on music to maintain cultural cachet.

And yet, the NFL has already run through a gauntlet of criticism for sharing the stage with the popular artist because, well, we live in an age of brand outrage, where the intersection of polarising politics, social media, and culture has become a massive anxiety trigger for brand trolls.

Brand backlash was one of the major marketing stories of 2025, and 2026 looks to be no different.

CEOs and CMOs now operate in an environment where a design choice or an innocuous phrase can ignite a wave of outrage amplified by bots, manufactured accounts, and algorithmic distortion.

In moments like these, brands would do well to take their cues from artists.

Artists don’t crowdsource what to make next. They listen to the world, interpret culture through their own lens, and create work grounded in truth and clarity.

They know criticism comes with the territory. Sometimes they listen and learn from it. But they also know that curiosity, emotion, and conviction are far stronger foundations for connection than fear.

Brand leaders can embrace the same mindset.

Own your vision

The first instinct when backlash hits is often to retreat. To flatten an idea until nobody can object to it.

But great brands, like great artists, know that consensus is not a strategy. Vision requires a point of view, and point of view invites friction.

The issue is whether the criticism clarifies or corrupts the brand’s intention.

Consider Nike’s Dream Crazy anniversary spot with activist Colin Kaepernick. The brand knew the creative choice would spark outrage in some quarters. It also knew the message aligned with decades of Nike’s own myth-making – empowerment, risk, individual conviction.

The backlash came, but Nike didn’t lose its footing. In fact, online sales increased.

Nike didn’t double down with its commitment to the campaign to win a culture war; it did so because its internal compass was stronger than the noise.

When brands act from that kind of grounded conviction, critics lose their power to define the work. The brand defines itself.

Inspire curiosity, not fear

Artists don’t aim for universal approval. They aim for resonance – the moment when someone leans in rather than recoils. Brands facing backlash can create that same curiosity if they resist the temptation to over-explain or defensively tidy the narrative.

Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign is a reminder that even joyful creativity can spark friction, and friction does not need to derail the work.

The idea was elegantly simple – replace the iconic logo with common first names and invite people to find themselves, their friends, or their family on the shelf. Millions participated, sharing bottles on social media and treating an everyday product as a personal artifact.

But the campaign also attracted criticism. In some markets, consumers publicly noted that their names (often non-Western or less common) were missing.

Some felt culturally excluded. These critiques were reminders that personalization, even when playful, has boundaries.

Yet Coke didn’t scramble to neutralize the discontent. Instead, the brand expanded the idea, adding more names, developing digital tools to create custom virtual bottles, and adapting the name sets to local cultures.

That approach, responding with curiosity rather than fear, is the point.

Coke treated the criticism as design input, not a referendum on the creative idea. And because the brand kept the emotional center of the work intact, the campaign maintained its integrity.

Curiosity prolonged the engagement. It changed the emotional temperature. It invited people to keep exploring rather than retreating to judgment.

Curiosity makes space for meaning to emerge.

Participate in culture without becoming hostage to it

Artists step into it with intention. They know that cultural participation is not the same as cultural pandering, and that the difference comes down to clarity of purpose.

This is a major takeaway from the Bad Bunny controversy. Cultural relevance might require a brand to move ahead of audience comfort, not follow it.

The choice generated immediate blowback from parts of the fan base who questioned whether a global Latin music star “fit” the traditional halftime template.

Some criticized the decision on stylistic grounds, and others simply resisted change. Yet the NFL stood firm. Commissioner Roger Goodell publicly reiterated that the league was not reconsidering the choice.

Why? Because the decision was strategic. Booking Bad Bunny aligns with the NFL’s desire to become more culturally relevant to an increasingly international fan base.

The NFL sees its cultural footprint as global, not just domestic, as evidenced by the league playing more games overseas. It’s an acknowledgment that music, fandom, and cultural influence no longer run through a single demographic lane.

This is what it looks like to participate in culture as an artist would. Recognize where culture is moving, understand why it matters, and create work that positions the brand inside the global conversation, rather than outside it.

Criticism is expected, even inevitable. But cultural relevance must be durable enough to withstand noise.

Turn confidence into connection

Confidence is not bravado. It is coherence, or the ability to act with clarity even when the environment is unpredictable.

Nike, the NFL, and Coca-Cola approached culture from entirely different angles: one through activism, one through global music, and one through personalisation. All three drew criticism. None allowed that criticism to become the story.

This is what happens when a brand behaves like an artist. Confidence becomes connection, and creative risk becomes emotional equity.

Backlash is no longer a test of whether you made the “right” choice. It’s a test of whether you know who you are.

Originally published in Design Week.