Before the #MeToo era arrived and “fat-shaming” became a term, a company called “Big Ass Fans” grew out of Kentucky alongside crass international brands such as Shit Skateboards, LoveSac Furniture, Hooters and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. 

Such brands don’t always sit well with religious consumers, progressive liberals or moral conservatives. While some religious communities boycotted companies for progressive, edgy or ribald stances in the past, a soft boycott or individualized avoidance may be more typical today say some experts. And it turns out that religious objections aren’t the only hurdles a brand like Big Ass Fans encounters in the digital age. 

Big Ass Fans, a company currently being acquired for $1.1 billion, was founded in 1999 under the significantly less-interesting name “HVLS Fan Company.” HVLS stands for “high volume, low speed,” referring to the design of the company’s long-bladed, slow-spinning fans. The founder, Carey Smith, realized that name “just wasn’t ringing a bell with our potential customers” who were baffled by the acronym. 

“Are you the guys who make those big-ass fans?” asked one customer over the phone. 

The wording stuck and Mr. Smith recruited a “recalcitrant donkey” named “Fanny" to model for a photograph featuring Fanny’s behind and its face looking back at the camera over its shoulder. “That donkey gave us that perfect triple-entendre big ass pose for our ads, and that photo that became the official image of our iconic mascot, Fanny,” Mr. Smith wrote in an essay at Inc magazine. He said the company then decided to change its name to “Big Ass Fans.”

The Lexington, Ky.,-based company’s massive industrial fans have become a dominant product for customers with warehouses, dairy barns, factory floors, theme parks, high school assembly halls and church gymnasiums. Therein lies the branding dilemma for Smith and his company. While the brand name is memorable to some clients, it is distasteful to others. 

“There was a part of the population that really took offense, and that's always great, because they are typically vocal. In this case, they certainly were, and we got a lot of pushback,” Smith said in an interview with Daniel Scrivner. “That helps marketing,” 

Smith has said a postmaster refused to deliver the first series of postcards the company mailed. A city councilman wanted to remove a billboard featuring Fanny from the side of Big Ass Fan’s first manufacturing facility. Smith says the company receives hate mail from people who find the name offensive, crude or inappropriate. 

“We embrace the haters by posting videos of their rants,” Mr. Smith said in his post at Inc. in 2014 “Most people just think it’s funny and get as much a kick out off the hate mail as we do.” 

The videos making fun of haters were taken down after Big Ass Fans was purchased for $500 million in 2017 by Lindsay Goldberg, a private equity firm based in New York City. That firm is now selling Big Ass Fans to Chicago-based manufacturer Madison Industries’ Indoor Air Quality vertical for an estimated $1.1 billion according to Moody’s Investor Services, a deal expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. 

Stickering Over A Fanny In Church

Pinterest features a page titled “Big Ass at Church” that appears to be managed by Big Ass Fans company and has 2,460 followers. It features 10 images of houses of worship – including First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland and a Southland Christian Church location in Kentucky -- that use the fans to improve air flow. The company said it probably sells 5 percent or so of its fans to schools and dozens a year to churches. 

The company’s web site features a case study of the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Manila, Philippines, a church that dates back 300 years and sometimes has 2,000 or more congregants arrive to seek miracles from a statue of Jesus Christ. The indoor temperature and humidity soars in the city’s tropical climate. Big Ass Fans said the church replaced 14 smaller fans with three Big Ass Fans and saw its electricity bill plummet by about 70 percent. 

Shelter Rock Church on Long Island installed a Big Ass Fan in its basketball gym / auditorium in Syosset, NY, but used black tape to cover the word “Ass” and the picture of Fanny. 

Jerry O’Sullivan, pastor at Shelter Rock in Syosset, said a member of the congregation who works in HVAC was a consultant when the church underwent a $4 million expansion project a few years ago. They purchased at least one Big Ass Fan for the new gymnasium and covered the company’s name with gaffer tape. 

“It’s not a big deal. I’m a coach in a CrossFit gym, it’s big in CrossFit culture to have a Big Ass Fan. There it’s a good thing. It’s tough. It’s provocative. In a church with little kids who can read — we just thought it best not to create any conversation about the fan,” O’Sullivan said. “In our case, it’s not going to improve our brand with parents that [the kids] learned about Big Ass Fans.” 

O’Sullivan said that although he felt it was necessary to cover the name, he didn’t consider going with another company. “I didn’t know of another fan company. Their name is obviously memorable,” O’Sullivan said. “I couldn’t tell you a name of another fan company.”

O’Sullivan said the situation was a minor construction matter that was easy to fix and not a major moral outrage for his church. “The word ‘ass’ is in the Bible, it’s not like it’s a terrible word,” said Pastor O’Sullivan at Shelter Rock in Syosset. 

A Wider Branding Brouhaha

A spokesman for the company, Alex Risen, noted that other churches, high school gyms, grade school gyms and companies owned by people who don’t like profanity also find the brand and logo off-putting at times. A Polynesian cultural center in Hawaii, for example, covered the word “ass” on the fans. He told ReligionUnplugged.com that the company now sells a version of the fan with logos and branding covered up, taking the “ass” out of the situation entirely. 

“We certainly understand from some customers, we are not going to be out here making ass puns all the time. Be a little more professional about that,” Risen said. “You don’t have to put ass in front of them gratuitously,” he said. 

In many ways, an edgy brand name is a double-edged sword. Big Ass Fans has had trouble in the past with emails not reaching clients—prevented from reaching their inbox because the word “ass” is blocked by a profanity filtering system. When dealing with some clients, Big Ass Fans operates from an “@bigfans.com” domain name to avoid the problem. 

Risen said the company has had to grow up a little bit in recent years. “We haven’t made as many ass puns. We don’t want to be sophomoric about it,” he said. The goal is to be a real solutions company, not just a funny name he said.

“Profanity in branding is risky business!” says Dr. Elizabeth Manser Payne, an Assistant Professor of Marketing at The University of South Dakota’s Beacom School of Business. “However, Americans are becoming desensitized to swear words. “Ass”, as far as swear words go, is only mildly offensive. Used contextually as Big Ass, as part of the brand’s name, ass takes on a new meaning in American culture. A risky move to grab attention—but it doesn’t push past the boundaries of what is acceptable for most consumers in today’s society.”

Manser Payne says in a hyper-cluttered social media environment, branding is key to create a positive image that a company’s target market can easily understand. Yet she does urge caution for entrepreneurs who are considering brands that edge on crassness. 

The edgy brand name “Shit” skateboards for a Norwegian company, for example, “despite what older generations may think, conveys a cool high-quality skateboard and product line for its brand community,” she said. “On the other hand, Big Ass Fans may have branding issues with some religious organizations that retain traditional values.” She noted a study that examined profanity acceptance determined that “ass,” while less offensive than sexually explicit profanity, is more offensive than using “God” or “Jesus” as a swear word.     

Stubbornness As Corporate Virtue

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Big Ass Fans developed a clean-air system to deal with the effects of airborne virus particulates. The company says the clean air system has offset any sales slowdown because of the pandemic, and that the first quarter of 2021 has seen double-digit percent growth in sales (Risen declined to release a number). 

Risen says the company remains - just like Fanny the donkey - stubborn and resolute in its company branding. They even spent thousands for a series of full-page advertisement in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other publications earlier this year, which pictured Fanny and the logo and a description of the product as a “virus destroyer.” 

Whether it brings laughs, a sense of toughness, or simply an appreciation for clever branding, Big Ass Fans is convinced its plan is working. The company’s strategy, simply stated, is to get customers in the door with the catchy name and then win them over with quality products. The company said it currently has 850,000 fans spinning in commercial, industrial, and residential situations around the globe, and sell between 30,000 and 40,000 each year.  

Big Ass Fans continue investing in R&D to improve automation, internet connectivity and silent motors to the fans. Major clients include Planet Fitness, Walmart to Lambeau Field and a nudist colony in Canada. It expanded from commercial to residential with a line called “Haiku” in 2012. 

Big Ass Fans is not the first company—nor will it be the last—to employ a catchy, if somewhat controversial name. It has proven so far that the tradeoff is worth it. Big Ass Fans prides itself on quality and a stubbornness about its name. 

“We’re not changing the name. We’re not shy about the name either,” Risen said. “If it offends you then don’t buy, don’t look.” 

Graham McNally is a 2021 graduate of The King’s College in NYC, where he majored in Media, Culture and the Arts and wrote for The Empire State Tribune and interned with Newsweek. Paul Glader is executive editor of ReligionUnplugged.com and a professor of journalism, media and entrepreneurship at The King’s College in NYC.