Men on The White Lotus went to Duke. The US university is not happy

This story contains spoilers for season 3 of The White Lotus.

Duke University is getting a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons from The White Lotus.

The HBO show’s third season, set in a luxury hotel in Thailand, features a wealthy family, two of whom are Duke alumni. But the father, played by actor Jason Isaacs, can hardly enjoy the lush surroundings since he’s been implicated in a money-laundering scheme and is being investigated by the FBI, jeopardising his family’s high-rolling lifestyle.

The fictional Ratliffs boast two Duke alumni: Tim (Jason Isaacs, left) and son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger, centre).

In episode 5, Isaacs’ character Timothy Ratliff considers ending it all. He sits down at a table, writes a note to his family and holds a gun to his temple. He’s wearing a gray T-shirt emblazoned with the iconic royal-blue Duke lettering and logo.

A clip of the scene went viral on social media platforms X and Reddit. The timing couldn’t have been more potent since Duke is a favoured pick to win the NCAA national college basketball championship. Some posters suggested the scene reflected what might happen if Duke loses the March Madness tournament.

Duke didn’t approve the use of its logo in The White Lotus, the school said in response to questions from Bloomberg.

Isaacs stars as Timothy Ratliff, wearing a Duke University T-shirt.

“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, said in a statement. “Suicide is the second-leading cause of death on college campuses. 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.”

A representative for HBO, which is owned by Warner Bros Discovery, declined to comment.

The old ad-industry adage says there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but some brands have in fact suffered as a result of unfortunate product placement. Peloton Interactive, the maker of the popular home fitness machine, had to resort to damage control after a character in And Just Like That..., also on HBO, died after exercising on a Peloton machine. The company said at the time that while it approved of the use of its bike in the show, it didn’t realise the context of the storyline.

In The White Lotus, Duke isn’t necessarily painted in the most flattering light. Patrick Schwarzenegger plays Saxon, the smug, playboy eldest son of the Ratliff family who is a recent Duke graduate now working for his dad. His sister, a peace-seeking Buddhist, attends the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke’s main rival.

“Duke appreciates artistic expression and creative storytelling, but characters prominently wearing apparel bearing Duke’s federally registered trademarks creates confusion and mistakenly suggests an endorsement or affiliation where none exists,” Tramble said.

Scott Landsbaum, an intellectual property business attorney, said it was common for companies and brands to take issue with negative portrayals in film and television, but there was not much they could do.

“You get quite a lot of protection under the First Amendment for artistic endeavours as long as you’re not doing something that would be considered defamatory,” he said. Simply showing some copyrighted work on a T-shirt is fair use, he added.

Often Hollywood does ask permission to use certain products and brands on-screen, since production companies want to avoid bad press, according to Landsbaum. But in the event that a company is surprised by a negative depiction, he said it might be better to stay silent.

“Complaining about it just draws more attention to it,” he said.

Bloomberg

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