CNN Asks How Recent Anti-Semitic Shootings Affect The KKK's Brand

When CNN wrote the worst Kurt Cobain lede ever, we figured that they had done something on which they couldn't improve. Here, though, is a long article ("Can This KKK Leader Rebrand?") from the once-respected news organization suggesting that the true victims of the recent Overland Park shootings may actually have been moderate Ku Klux Klan leaders.

The carnage was devastating to many. Imperial Wizard Frank Ancona was upset, too.

"What this guy just did set back everything I've been trying to do for years," said Ancona, who leads the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Ancona, it seems, is tired of people associating the KKK with state-sanctioned racist terrorism. He would like to rebrand the Klan, and that's why he's using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to "increase awareness of the destruction of our constitutional rights and the plight of the White race in America."

Unfortunately for Ancano, CNN's extensive consultations with "top marketing experts, brand gurus and historians" reveal that a rebranding strategy for the Klan might meet with some difficulties:

From a sheer marketing perspective, the lack of central leadership poses more problems for the KKK if it's serious about revamping its image.... Without a clear leader, marketing experts said, crafting and conveying a spin-friendly message is impossible.

...

Dan Hill, a marketing expert who specializes in how consumers react emotionally to advertisements, said there can probably never be a Klan rebranding.

"Disney is happiness. Nike is you're proud you ran the race. The Ayran Brotherhood — that's somewhere on the spectrum of rage and outrage," he said.

So, yeah.

h/t Glasspiegel

Photo via Getty