Brands you (unreasonably) dislike?

[whatadaytoday]

I was thinking about this tonight as I parked next to a Renault SUV. It’s completely unreasonable but I’ve never liked the brand since someone I know once said ‘it’s like driving a bin on wheels’. Even though I’m sure the brand is perfectly fine (and very popular) it’s stuck in my head. Apologies to all Renault drivers!

I’ve got other brands I unreasonably dislike too but do you have any?

Kipling Bags

Every time I see a ( usually elderly) lady with one ,they have the monkey dangling off it.

Just think it's naff

BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Ford & Mini Cooper. If someone is driving like an aggressive arsehole, or right up your backside or never indicates I guarantee it’s one of those car brands.

I always think who the fuck would go to a car showroom armed with some cash and choose a Nissan Note

Range Rovers that have their rear number plates jauntily placed on one side of the boot. Just. NO!!

@Bloodyscarymary No way! Jo Malone has such an inspiring origin story from a British female entrepreneur. The scents are also really gorgeous. Give them another go!

Now owned by Estee Lauder and has massively gone down the pan. IMO.

I’m confused - do you mean fake flowers?

Rolex
Hotel Chocolate

Yes, exactly! And some of them are probably really nice, but they’ve all got lumped into one in my head, and once you’ve seen it you can’t unsee it. Hence unreasonable dislike. I guess it makes it easier for them to trademark the names, and they sound vaguely comforting. But still annoying and generic.

I really dislike Greene King pubs - I am sure they are fine but I shudder when I see the signage and wish it was just an independent pub.

As a general point, I don’t really understand why non “status” or not particularly sought after brands insist on really obvious branding.

Surely Greene King could just own pubs quietly behind the scenes and let the pubs appear to be independents like most other restaurant groups? Or is there some sort of broad appeal to a Greene King/rewards system that they must be visible that I’m missing?

Another one is Russel & Bromley - quite nice shoes but I have no interest in wearing boots with a little fabric tag that says “Russel & Bromley” as it’s not a flex to own a pair of their boots as they’re just a high street brand?

I feel like unless you’re Prada etc you should keep your branding subtle/non-existent.

Lucy and Yak for me. Some people obviously like the overgrown toddler look, but I can't help thinking the brand is trying a bit too hard to be whacky and alternative.

Tesla - aren't they just a battery on wheels?

@Bloodyscarymary Greene King pissed me off last year, there's an amateur dramatics group that's been doing Shakespeare plays in a certain pub for 50 odd years. Greene King came along and terminated their contract, the arses. So I'm boycotting them as well!

Why does Mumsnet hate 'Spoons?

Very important question!

Plouise for anyone over the age of 16!
targeted for kids but priced as serious adult makeup

Yes I think it rubs me the wrong way because it’s a faux version of a business like a law firm that traditionally used the last names of all the partners as the firm name.

But in the modern branding use it’s generally just two words selected based on brand “vibes”. Just come up with an actual brand name!! It feels unoriginal and inauthentic to me. Also massively overdone so not a good strategic branding choice either these days.

The only one I like is a brand called “Triumph & Disaster” because that is based off the poem by Rudyard Kipling so that is acceptable to me.

Yes, it is. Never come across it here (London)

Yorkie bars. I still haven't forgiven them for their Not For Girls campaign.
I was a girl when that campaign was out and it worked on me.
I think it was a case of ' who says a cant have a Yorkie bar!!!'
To be fair i did like them.

That is exactly the sort of bad behaviour I would have expected of a Greene King pub, despite never having gone in one and only grimacing at them as I walk past (on the hunt for a more independent looking pub 😆).

I saw one of those years ago on the M6 in Birmingham . It was a big square block , dark brown in colour…. The number plate was OXO ….
Brilliant 👏

Boden. Largely terrible clothes and just screams 'awful smug middle-class family prone to performance parenting' to me.

Joules. As above, but even worse clothes and weird obsession with shooting-based motifs.

Irregular Choice shoes. I know some of their 'normal' shoes are perfectly nice but for ages I kept getting spammed with adverts for them and everything in the ads always just looked like shoes that would be worn by Su Pollard, pantomime dames and literally nobody else.

Morrison's. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the food they sell but for some reason I find the entire brand depressing and cannot for the life of me explain why.

Charlotte Tilbury. Plenty of the products are pretty good and one of her perfumes is also nice, but I loathe the branding and all her 'Hi Darlings!' bullshit and talk of 'secret ingredients'. There are no secret ingredients in your fucking moisturiser, love; that would be illegal. I also really hate all pink and rose gold on the packaging.

Stone Island. It's for football hooligans and Nazis.

Yankee Candles. They all smell repellent, look ugly and have stupid twee names.

I feel like we need to start a whole new thread for our mutual dislike of Morrisons and why nobody can actually pinpoint what's wrong with it 😂

Brands in general.
Farrow and Ball.
It's just paint.
Call it a stupid name and charge 3 times the price so the middle classes think they've got something special.

The Swiss like the chocolate makers Sprüngli and Laderach. Swiss chocolate really is amazing.

The closest thing in UK supermarkets is actually Waitrose own brand, it’s the only one I have found where the first ingredient listed isn’t sugar but milk solids/cocoa solids. That’s a good way to determine if the chocolate is going to be good and not just sugary trash.

Ah yes, Charlotte Tilbury. I always hear that the products are great but I can't get past her annoying me in the commercials. She makes it look like a much cheaper brand than it actually is. I thought the idea of a lot of these celebrity or strong figurehead type brands was that you were pulled in because you want some of what they've got or to be like them. She has the exact opposite effect on me.

I don't know yet if I feel the same about Trinny. By all accounts she makes excellent skincare, but I'm put off by her. I don't find her nearly as annoying as CT but I can't seem to take her seriously as some kind of cosmetic scientist. If her products weren't labelled Trinny or associated with her I bet I'd buy them based upon recommendations.

This gives me the mental image of a posh woman saying to her friends: "No, of course Tamara isn't really fat. Good heavens no! She was skiing down the black run and the wind puffed out her face so she looked like one of those obese oiks you see on TV. Frightfully funny, we all roared!"