According to a New York Times article, the #OccupyWallStreet hashtag came into being on July 13, when Kalle Lasn, editor of Adbusters, and his colleagues created it. There was also this story on the Canada-based magazine’s site on that day. Soon after, the poster at left was designed.

The name of the story is “The Branding of Occupy Wall Street,” and since the movement got started, Adbusters has continued to talk up OWS, which falls in line with the magazine’s anti-consumerist focus. But it’s interesting that the Times gives so much credit to Lasn and Adbusters for branding a movement that media and critics have said for months has abeen hard to pin down.

Branding anything requires more than a hashtag, a poster, and a few blog posts, though we would give credit to the publication, which says it has a circulation of about 70,000, of helping to get the word out. The branding and promotion of OWS seems to be coming from a variety of places, like suggested logos in The New York Times, spokespeople who give updates about the latest plans, and a woman calling herself Ketchup who spoke to Stephen Colbert on behalf of the group.

Is The New York Times giving Adbusters too much credit?