Scouring the news these days is a painful experience. Imagine, however, finding your brand name tarnished by a picture of suspected murderers donning your clothes in court. From a brand’s marketing perspective it doesn’t come much worse than that.

The picture in question comes from the Emmanuel Sithole court hearing, the Mozambican man murdered in the midst of the xenophobic attacks. The images splashed across newspapers countrywide brought the crime to national attention, and these men appeared in court on the murder charges.

Oh dear UZZI, that is not a good look. In the wake of this picture many took to Twitter to vocalise what is becoming something of a brand crisis. These from TimesLive:

-@Loom_8: Uzzi sweaters are knitted using missing shredded police dockets.. if u look closely u can see the case numbers;

– @Sikho_N: Instead of a slip‚ when you buy Uzzi‚ you get a criminal record;

– @CulpritEnter: Every time they interview a criminal on Carte Blanche‚ he’s wearing an Uzzi item;

Well that’s not a good brand image to have going around then is it? The shit really hit the fan when a man found guilty of eating another man’s heart, Andrew Chimboza, appeared in court yesterday wearing this:

Cold-blooded xenophobic murderers and heart-eaters, quite the reputation UZZI is building. They’re not the first brand to suffer from some rather dubious associations, however, as high-end UK brand Burberry can attest to. A series of football hooligans were pictured wearing their clothes, with this from the Daily Mail:

It was associated with people who did bad stuff, who went wild on the terraces. Quite a lot of people thought that Burberry would be worn by the person who mugged them. Some venues banned anyone wearing it, so entrenched was its association with anti-social behaviour.

One feels something of a complete brand overhaul is needed from UZZI before this one gets away from them.

Perhaps a man rescuing a kitten from a burning tree, donned head to toe in their clothing, or the classic old lady across the street gag. The problem is, as things stand, you’d half expect anyone wearing their clothes to take the lady’s handbag and beat a hasty retreat.

[sources:timeslive&dailymail]