Duke University really wishes The White Lotus hadn't used its merch

In episode five, Jason Isaacs’ character held a gun to his temple while wearing a Duke T-shirt, fueling a slew of March Madness memes from delighted Duke haters. Duke’s administration was less gleeful. “The White Lotus not only uses our brand without permission, but in our view uses it on imagery that is troubling, does not reflect our values or who we are, and simply goes too far,” Frank Tramble, Duke’s vice president for communications, marketing and public affairs, told Bloomberg in a statement. 

“Suicide is the second-leading cause of death on college campuses,” Tramble continued. “As imagery from the show is being shared widely across social media, we are using our brand to promote mental health awareness and remind people that help is available.” 

As Bloomberg points out, sometimes, there is such a thing as bad press. Peloton infamously had to defend its brand after Big died from cardiac arrest while riding one of its bikes on And Just Like That… in 2021. Execs at Crock-Pot definitely had a few rough meetings after that one episode of This Is Us as well. At least—as of this writing—Saxon didn’t wear the school’s colors during any of the show’s incest scenes, but there are still two episodes to go. Anything could happen.