Brands love to insert themselves into cultural conversations or  piggyback on buzzy current events, a strategy sometimes called newsjacking. But it can happen without seeking, or even wanting, the attention. The borderline absurd virality of a Nike tracksuit evidently worn by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as he was taken into the custody of American captors is the most high-profile recent example—but it definitely won’t be the last.

This form of what we could call involuntary product placement can be a conundrum for brands, which prefer to be associated with upbeat or positive events, not dictators or controversial geopolitics. And that’s been made even more challenging by a starkly divided political climate that has put brands from Bud Light to Tesla to Hilton in the crossfire, and a hypercharged social media environment that constantly hungers for new angles, riffs, and takes on whatever is hogging the spotlight.

Of course, involuntary product placement isn’t new: If you remember the car chase climaxing in O.J. Simpson’s arrest, you know he was driving a Ford Bronco.........

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