The corporate reputation crisis has a new and bitter case study: the “Calvo do Campari”. Thiago Schutz, the self-proclaimed “masculinity coach” and icon of the Red Pill movement, was arrested for assault and attempted rape against his girlfriend.
What would have been just police news turned into a branding nightmare for Campari, which, despite never having sponsored the attacker, saw its name dragged into the center of a debate about misogyny and violence.
The data is a digital portrait of the disaster. The Online Reputation of the Campari brand (Mar Aberto) is at a level of 3.9 (in a ranking that goes up to 10)a clear sign that the association with the case has contaminated public perception.
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The crisis that goes viral with 18 thousand views per mention
The crisis is not just massive, it is viral. Monitoring shows that negative sentiment dominates the conversation, and is what spreads with greater speed and engagement:
- Volume and Sentiment: Of the 555 total mentions, 377 are negativerepresenting approximately 68% of the conversation.
- Negative Viral: The average number of views per negative mention is impressive 17,986.9 viewsa number that reinforces the expansion of the crisis, as positive mentions barely reach 10,001.9 views.
- Toxic Engagement: The Average Engagement per Negative Mention is 1.206,8a number that crushes positive engagement (271.1), proving that the public is much more engaged in condemning the association than in defending the brand.
The crisis is spreading across several fronts, showing the widespread nature of the problem:
- X/Twitter (70% of mentions): The main stage of the crisis, with 3.6 million views e 9.6 mil retweets in just 389 mentions, dominated by negative sentiment (66.6%).
- News Sites (12% of mentions): The negative feeling hits 90% in the 69 mentions on websites, showing that the press is also focused on condemning the case.
- Instagram (17% of mentions): The visual platform also reflects the crisis, with 58% negative sentiment in 97 mentions, indicating that the brand image is being affected across all channels.
The Price of Unwanted Membership
Campari had already spoken out in 2023, repudiating Schutz’s misogynistic statements. However, the strength of the nickname “Calvo do Campari” – which came from a video in which he refuses a beer, saying that he only drinks Campari – proved to be more powerful than any note of rejection.
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The arrest turned the association into a public condemnation. High-profile personalities and media outlets used “Calvo’s” full name to report the crime, embedding the brand in the imagery of violence:
- Lazaro Rosain one of the most viral mentions (1 million views), reported: “NO FAIL! Thiago Schutz, the ‘Masculinity Coach’ known as Calvo from Campari and icon of the Red Pill movement, was arrested today for domestic violence.”
- The deputy Erika Hilton criticized the attacker’s release, using the nickname and directly associating it with the “portrayal of misogyny and machismo that pervades our society”.
The case is an acid warning for the world of branding: the brand loses control of the narrative when its name becomes an epithet for an aggressor. Campari, which sells a sophisticated and bitter lifestyle, is now dealing with a much more real bitterness: having its name linked to hate speech that culminated in violence.
The crisis shows that, in the digital world, reputation is not only built by sponsorships, but also by organic and, in this case, toxic associations. Campari’s challenge now is immense: how to disinfect its name from a “bald man” who, even without a contract, became the face of the brand’s most viral crisis.
