The Extremist Threat from Metallica

No, this is serious - James Hetfield from Metallica questioned by airport security personel before the Live Earth concert in London because of "taliban-like beard" :

"According to British newspaper The Times, the rocker jetted into Luton airport ahead of Saturday's Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium - where his legendary rock band was due to perform - but was halted by officials before he could leave the terminal. The legendary frontman was then subjected to a brief line of questioning, after which security-conscious officials were left red-faced when Hetfield explained he was a member of a world-famous rock band."

In 2007, if you're named Muhammad you'll be living the life of someone else's stereotype that you're a terrorist, and with a beard it's even more suspicious, which is perhaps why Muslims in the U.K started an anti-terror campaign "Not in Your Name" trying to distinguish themselves from such simple and totally wrong stereotypes.

Terrorist Groups' Brand Identities

The author of this terrorist groups' logos compilation is greatly using business logos identity building analogy to discuss whether or not logos of terrorist groups successfully communicate their message or vision :

"I did some research and rounded up as many logos as I could find from terrorist groups past and present. While I hate to give terrorists any more attention, I still think it’s interesting to see the various approaches they took in their logos, and wonder what considerations went into designing them. Does the logo successfully convey the organization’s message? Is it confusingly similar to another group’s logo? Does it exhibit excessive drop shadows, gradients, or use of whatever font is the Arabic equivalent of Papyrus?"

And while it reminds me of another business analogy, namely a A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Cyber Terrorism, such analogies clearly indicate two things - first, branding is something they are aware of, and second, they understand that evil advertising can easily turn into propaganda and a brainwashing tool given the numerous PR channels they already actively use -- pretty much every Web 2.0 company that is out there. The screenshot above represents an advertisement of the Mujahideen Secrets Encryption Tool, more screenshots of which you can find in a previous post. Despite that the tool is freely available for the wannabe jihadists to use, and that no one is ever going to receive a box-copy of it physically, GIMF took the time and effort to come up with a box-style software product ad realizing the basics of branding, namely that each and every contact with the brand -- GIMF in this case -- can either weaken or strengthen a brand's image in the perception of the prospective user/customer.