Strong brands take a lot of care to manage their identity—anyone who’s ever done graphic design work for a Microsoft or a Philips can tell you that. This color blue. The logo just this size in respect to the text. And good luck trying to use their logo without written permission.

But in a world where so much consumable content is user generated (see this month’s issue of This Old House Magazine which was 100% reader generated, for example) do you risk missing out on a sort of grass roots brand groundswell if you are too in-control over how your brand shows up?

In a recent visit to San Francisco, I saw Barack Obama’s image on everything from homemade t-shirts to rearview-mirror -air-fresheners. On one shirt for sale in the Mission, the image didn’t even look anything like him. I’ve seen murals and hand painted signs, and on KEXP’s local Seattle hip hop show on Saturday nights I’ve heard at least two or three tracks either about Obama or that sample his speeches.

What does this say about Obama? And what does this say about the strength of his brand loyalty? In this case less control might be better. Are we turning a corner in how brands manage their identity?

-Briana