Stay safe: Avoid using the Bayer Cross or Bayer product logos on personal social media

Although we support Bayer colleagues posting about their work on personal social media pages, we advise that you refrain from including the Bayer Cross logo when doing so, except in specific cases where you have obtained explicit approval beforehand. The same generally applies to the logos for our Bayer product brands.

Bayer colleagues who wish to do so are encouraged to share, comment or post about our activities and key topics on social media, provided they follow our guidelines for safe and legal social media use. These principles are designed to encourage positive engagements and protect our colleagues, customers and business. Some of the guidelines relate to observing legal or copyright regulations, or to dealing with negative interactions and getting the right support.

For the same reasons, we also advise you not to include the Bayer Cross, or any Bayer product brand logos, in posts on your private social media profiles. Official Bayer pages will of course use them in approved contexts, but personal pages that are independent from Bayer require different treatment.

Overall, the rationale for avoiding using the Bayer Cross on personal pages can be split into two categories: protecting you and protecting Bayer. 

Protecting you against negative interactions

As a brand, Bayer is extremely well-recognized and often in the news. It inspires a range of reactions – broadly positive, but in some cases negative or controversy-led. And in a social media environment, this can lead to adversarial voices posting negative comments whenever they see our brand.

If you use the Bayer Cross logo on your profile or posts, you could inadvertently attract this negativity from online commenters, who may see you as a spokesperson for the company. You should not assume you are safe, even if what you’re posting is innocuous. Sadly, critical comments can even occur on posts that are completely unrelated to the criticism.

We want to ensure colleagues are supported in the event of negative communications, and do not feel like they are left to deal with them ‘on their own’. The first step in this is not becoming an individual target, which means it’s best not to use the Bayer logo or our product logos on your personal page.

Protecting Bayer against legal or commercial repercussions

Bayer’s corporate brand and product brands are hugely important and valuable assets. We put significant efforts into protecting these trademarks, because if we don’t, they could be weakened or even completely lost over time.

That’s why we only approve usage of the Bayer Cross in approved and controlled scenarios and have clear principles for how to present it. Personal profiles aren’t a context where we can administer that control or approval, especially when you consider how many Bayer employees there are.

Furthermore, if a post contains the Bayer logo, Bayer could potentially be viewed as being affiliated with that post, and therefore legally responsible for it. That could lead to issues, for example if a post is accused of copyright infringement. 

To be clear, we are not suggesting that your posts are likely to cause any problems – only that it is better to be absolutely safe! And the best way to eliminate any risks is not to include the Bayer Cross or product logos in the first place.

Are there any exceptions?

In general, we do not grant exceptions, and there is no official process for approving the use of logos in colleagues’ personal posts.

However, if you have a particular idea for a post that you think would fit our guidelines and support our brand, please contact Corporate Brand Management to discuss it directly. Once something is published online, it’s permanent – so it is best to go through all checks and processes before you go live. This helps us all communicate safely.