‘Brand Abuse’ — The WHW Lecture 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010 
The 2010 Institute of Designers in Ireland annual lecture in commemoration of William H Walsh, the founder of Kilkenny Design Workshops, was organised on IDI's behalf by BFK.
We arranged for Tom Blackett, international brand consultant, non-executive chairman of Siegel and Gale and former deputy chairman of Interbrand to speak on 'Brand Abuse'.
Tom presented a fascinating and wide-ranging paper covering abuse by brands of their stakeholders, abuse of brands by supermarkets, brand self-abuse and – his own particular bugbear – abuse, or misuse, of the word 'brand' itself, and concluded with the conclusion that brands still hold the key to stability and business growth so long as they keep the pact with their stakeholders.
That the presentation was well received by the large business audience was confirmed by the lively questions and answers session that followed.
Martin circulates amongst the audience.
Tom gets some feedback on his lecture.
Tom gets some more feedback on his lecture.
Some of our audience, thinking up insightful questions to ask. 