Figure 1 Searches for brands and fake news from 2004 to August Guest editorial 2019

Brands and brand management under threat in an age of fake news A very large study of the fake news phenomenon on Twitter by Vosoughi et al. (2018) established some simple but frightening facts. Fake news spreads farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth. Because fake news was almost always more novel – the truth is not usually stranger than fiction – people were always more willing to share it. Fake news also evokes different emotional reactions, than the truth. and “truthiness” appeared identified 492 papers and resulted True news generally evokes what might be less intense in the construction of the trend graph in Figure 2. Whereas emotions such as joy and sadness. Fake news tends to arouse very few papers featuring the terms were published on these themorepowerfulemotionsofanger,surpriseanddisgust. issues until 2016, this took off rapidly in 2017, a year in which Like the dissemination of all information concerning 60 papers were published and increasing three-fold to 180 individuals, organizations and other entities, fake news can papers in 2018. In all, 148 papers have been published on the have a significant impact on brands. Brands are both the terms so far in 2019, but it must be remembered that these perpetrators and the victims of fake news (Berthon and Pitt, numbers include only papers published until the end of July of 2018; Mills et al.,2019). While there have been successful this year. It is very likely that the total, for the year 2019, will attempts at educating consumers on how to evaluate exceed 180 papers. Fake news and truthiness are obviously a information sources (Head et al., 2019), fake news presents a big deal in academia. troubling problem for brand managers. This problem is Web of Science data on the top ten disciplines in which this magnified, as consumers seem to disregard the attempts of work is being published are shown in Figure 3. As can be seen, digital platform managers to notify them of illegitimacy of the communications discipline dominates with 95 papers content (Colliander, 2019). (around 20 per cent of the total) being published in peer- Customers are interacting with empathic media sources reviewed journals serving that discipline. This is followed by (Bakir and McStay, 2018) that produce digital content information science, education and political science. (articles, blogs, advertising, public relations releases, pictures, Business, with only six papers, would not have made the top videos and other digital content) that is not only tailored for 20 disciplines on the list. Marketing journals would have precise audiences but also personalized to impact the attitudes been included under this categorization, and close inspection and behaviors of specific individuals. Many customers adopt reveals that the most cited paper in a marketing journal on or change opinions and beliefs based on the truthiness or the fake news and brands is the relatively recent paper by Berthon judging of legitimacy by feelings, rather than thought and Pitt (2018), which has 21 citations on Google Scholar as (Berthon and Pitt, 2018). This implies that customers may of August 2019, and only 2 citations in Web of Science have attitudes toward brands that are not based on evidence journals. Quite simply, fake news and brands have not been but driven by their consumption of fake news about a brand, substantially explored in the marketing literature. which has consequences for brand trust and attitudes Using the bibliographic software VOS (Visualization Of (Visentin et al.,2019). Similarities)Viewer(Van Eck and Waltman, 2009), we also Brands have always been an issue of increasing general created a number of network maps of key terms, author interest, as the graph of Google searches according to Google networks and co-citations in all the Web of Science papers on Trends for the term “brands” from 2004 to the present in fake news and brands. VOS Viewer is free software developed Figure 1 shows. The notion of fake news and society’s interest at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands to analyze in it is different. Searches for the term were dormant, as can be bibliometric data and then to construct and view seen in the same graph, until the 2016 US Presidential Election, when they spiked significantly, only to revive again Figure 2 Number of papers per year on fake news or truthiness in 2017, and then decline slightly. Academic interest in fake news, however, has accelerated rapidly in the recent past. A search for papers in peer-reviewed journals on Web of Science in which the terms “fake news”

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Journal of Product & Brand Management 29/2 (2020) 141–143 © Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421] [DOI 10.1108/JPBM-03-2020-008]

141 Guest editorial Journal of Product & Brand Management Kirk Plangger and Leyland Pitt Volume 29 · Number 2 · 2020 · 141–143

Figure 3 Top ten academic disciplines for research on fake news Help is at hand. We are confident that the exciting and challenging papers presented in this special issue of JPBM will redress the dearth of good brand management and marketing papers on brands and fake news. We have three broad types of papers, including conceptual perspectives on fake news, brand stakeholder influences and managerial responses to fake news. We start with three conceptual papers that come from different theoretical perspectives. Drawing from semiotics theory, Berthon et al. (2020) create a typology of fake news that they test using climate change news items and then develop four types of branding communications: real, fake, empty and ironic. Then, Ferreira et al. (2020) investigate the role of power structures to develop a fake news typology based on the factualness and the source of the content, which they illustrate using four examples. Mills and Robson (2020) add practical brand management strategies to respond to fake news coming from insights into narratives and storytelling that Figure 4 Most commonly occurring words in papers on fake news and focus on authenticity and emotional engagement. brands Following these, we have four papers that investigate a variety of stakeholder responses to fake news about brands. From a denialism perspective, De Regt et al. (2020) show how fake and pseudo facts about health and beauty propagate in both traditional and digital media using three case studies. For a different perspective on fake news propagation, Weidner et al. (2020) use the complementary lenses of the schemer’s schema and confirmatory bias to understand consumers’ willingness to share fake news. Next, from a persuasion knowledge perspective, Chen and Cheng (2020) examine how fake news about brands is processed by consumers and can result in changes in brand trust. Then, Lee et al. (2020) explore employee’s perceptions of their employers’ brand communications, specifically focusing on brand slogans. Turning to non-profits and fake news, Vafeiadis et al. (2020) conduct an experiment that shows that individuals’ level of involvement in a fake news crisis needs to be considered carefully before managers respond. The special issue concludes with three papers that look more deeply into the impact of fake news on brands and their management. Reporting the evidence from a large sample, Paschen (2020) compares fake and real news, and finds that, compared to real news, fake news is significantly more bibliographic maps for easier interpretation. One of the most negative, both in terms of displaying negative emotions and a telling maps is presented in Figure 4. It shows the extent of lack of positive emotions. Then Peterson (2020) digs into the occurrence and co-occurrence of the most prominent brand managerial implications of the rise of fake news and keywords used in papers on fake news and brands in Web of different approaches to respond to it more effectively to Science journals. The size of the circles on the map represents minimize brand damage and risk. Finally, Flostrand et al. the prominence of the keyword (number of times it appeared). (2020) report the results of a three round Delphi study of the “ ” Fake news is obviously the most prominent key term, perspective of a panel of brand management experts from “ ” “ ” followed by social media and misinformation .Itisalso industry and academia on fake news and brands. Developed at fi apparent from the gure that there are themes that are the RAND Corporation in the late 1950s and 1960s, as a way addressed in this literature: with fake news at the center, the of forecasting future scenarios in the absence of hard data, the bottom half of the map has to do with the internet, social Delphi technique provides a useful mechanism to predict the media (such as Twitter and Facebook) and being online; and future outcomes of broad phenomena, society and business the top half of the map has to do with journalism, the media practice. and misinformation. While used as a key search term, As a closing note, we would like to give a special thank you “brands” does not even appear among the most commonly to Professor Cleopatra Velouitsou, a co-editor in chief of used words on the map. Once more, marketing and brand JPBM, for her thoughtful advice and comments throughout management are conspicuous in their absence in the literature this special issue’s conceptualization, review process and on fake news and brands. production. We would also like to thank the many reviewers

142 Guest editorial Journal of Product & Brand Management Kirk Plangger and Leyland Pitt Volume 29 · Number 2 · 2020 · 141–143 for their time and effort in providing insightful and inspiring Lee, L.W., Hannah, D. and McCarthy, I.P. (2020), “Do your feedback to the authors, and that is not fake news! employees think your slogan is ‘fake news?’ A framework for understanding the impact of fake company slogans on Kirk Plangger employees”, Journal of Product & Brand Management. King’s Business School, King’s College London, “ London, UK, and Mills, A.J. and Robson, K. (2020), Brand management in the era of fake news: narrative response as a strategy to insulate Leyland Pitt brand value”, Journal of Product & Brand Management. Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Mills, A.J., Pitt, C. and Ferguson, S.L. (2019), “The Vancouver, Canada relationship between fake news and advertising: brand management in the era of programmatic advertising and fi ” References proli c falsehood , Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 59 No. 1, pp. 3-8. Bakir, V. and McStay, A. (2018), “Fake news and the economy Paschen, J. (2020), “Investigating the emotional appeal of fake of emotions: problems, causes, solutions”, Digital Journalism, news using artificial intelligence and human contributions”, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 154-175. Journal of Product & Brand Management. Berthon, P.R. and Pitt, L.F. (2018), “Brands, truthiness and Peterson, M. (2020), “A high-speed world with fake news: post-fact: managing brands in a post-rational world”, Journal brand managers take warning”, Journal of Product & Brand of Macromarketing, Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 218-227. Management. Berthon, P., Pehlivan, E., Yalcin, T. and Rabinovich, T. Vafeiadis, M., Bortree, D.S., Buckley, C., Diddi, P. and Xiao, (2020), “True, fake and alternative: a topology of news and A. (2020), “Refuting fake news on social media: nonprofits, its implications for brands”, Journal of Product & Brand crisis response strategies and issue involvement”, Journal of Management. Product & Brand Management. Chen, Z.F. and Cheng, Y. (2020), “Consumer response to fake Van Eck, N. and Waltman, L. (2009), “Software survey: VOS news about brands on social media: the effects of self- viewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping”, fi ef cacy, media trust, and persuasion knowledge on brand Scientometrics, Vol. 84 No. 2, pp. 523-538. ” trust , Journal of Product & Brand Management. Visentin, M., Pizzi, G. and Pichierri, M. (2019), “Fake news, “ ” Colliander, J. (2019), This is fake news : investigating the role real problems for brands: the impact of content truthfulness ’ of conformity to other users views when commenting on and and source credibility on consumers’ behavioral intentions spreading disinformation in social media”, Computers in toward the advertised brands”, Journal of Interactive Human Behavior, Vol. 97, pp. 202-215. Marketing, Vol. 45, pp. 99-112. De Regt, A., Montecchi, M. and Lord Fergusson, S. (2020), Vosoughi, S., Roy, D. and Aral, S. (2018), “The spread of true “A false image of health: how fake news and pseudo-facts and false news online”, Science, Vol. 359 No. 6380, spread in the health and beauty industry”, Journal of Product pp. 1146-1151. & Brand Management. Weidner, K., Beuk, F. and Bal, A. (2020), “Fake news and the Ferreira, C.C., Robertson, J. and Kirsten, M. (2020), “The willingness to share: a schemer schema and confirmatory bias truth (as I see it): philosophical considerations influencing a perspective”, Journal of Product & Brand Management. typology of fake news”, Journal of Product & Brand Management. Flostrand, A., Pitt, L.F. and Kietzmann, J. (2020), “Fake news Further reading and brand management: a Delphi study of impact, vulnerability, and mitigation”, Journal of Product & Brand Talwar, S., Dhir, A., Kaur, P., Zafar, N. and Alrasheedy, M. Management. (2019), “Why do people share fake news? Associations Head, A.J., DeFrain, E., Fister, B. and MacMillan, M. (2019), between the dark side of social media use and fake news “Across the great divide: how today’s college students engage sharing behavior”, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, with news”, First Monday, Vol. 24 No. 8. Vol. 51, pp. 72-82.

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