Students from CBS are arranging parties in rented rooms around Copenhagen where they serve alcohol and aim to provide their fellow classmates with a private place to get together and socialise.

A kind of replacement for the now closed Thursday parties Café Nexus held until August 2022.

They are promoting these parties on social media using names associated with Café Nexus and CBS.

For example, one group is called ‘Nexus Thursdays’ and another ‘Café Campus’, the latter with the description that they “wish to take all of the best from Café Nexus into a new chapter of social gatherings among students at CBS”.

But this usage of Café Nexus’ brand is not OK, according to the acting chairman of Café Nexus’ board, Kristine Kryger:

“We do not find it acceptable that private actors are stealing our brand identity and we fear that students are being led to believe that CBS Students as an organisation is in some way behind the events,” she says.

She is supported by CBS Students, who owns Café Nexus.

“The students hosting these private parties are piggybacking on the established brand of Café Nexus and it is not acceptable. New students risk mistaking these parties for the actual Café Nexus and they might believe that CBS Students is in some way behind the events,” Mikkel August Wallind, president of CBS Students states.

He goes on to explain how students have already reached out to them asking whether CBS Students is involved in the parties.

“The fact that some students are mistaking Café Nexus with these private events is a problem because we cannot guarantee the same focus on a safe and welcoming environment, as well as student-friendly prices, that we can at Café Nexus,” Mikkel Wallind says.

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Et opslag delt af NEXUS Thursdays (@nexus__thursdays)

Party hosts do not agree with the criticism

One of the hosts behind the parties named ‘Nexus Thursdays’ on Instagram and Facebook is CBS student Barbara Mona Mogensen.

She explains how shutting down Café Nexus’ Thursday parties left a void in many students’ social lives and that she and her partners wanted to fill the gap with a new initiative.

Therefore, they decided on the event name ‘Nexus Thursdays’ so that “students could associate the good energy from Café Nexus with Nexus Thursdays,” as Barbara Mogensen puts it.

Why Café Nexus is angry about their choice of event name, she does not quite understand:

“Before we launched our concept, we tried to reach out to Café Nexus a couple of times, but unfortunately received no response. Therefore, we do not understand the criticism from Cafe Nexus,” Barbara Mogensen says, adding:

“We are sad that Cafe Nexus cannot be happy on behalf of the students that there is now an alternative every Thursday for the students to be able to meet over a beer. Café Nexus on Campus is closed, and we are therefore only here to keep making sure that the students can have a good gathering point every Thursday.”

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Et opslag delt af Café Campus (@campuscbs)

No special claim on CBS students

For the initiators behind the party platform called Café Campus, the aim is similar to the one described by Barbara Mogensen.

“I have always been a regular guest at Café Nexus, so when I heard CBS was closing down the Thursday parties, my partners and I thought it would be cool to make an alternative. Our initiative is for CBS students only, which is part of our ambition to create a safe place outside campus,” says Ole Kløvgaard, who is a previous CBS student.

Café Campus opens when Café Nexus closes at 20 o’clock on Thursdays, “so we are not competing with Café Nexus,” Ole Kløvgaard stresses.

“Maybe Café Nexus feels that it has a special claim to students on Thursdays, but we don’t agree with that. We wanted to work together with Café Nexus and learn from them, but when we reached out, they did not respond,” adds Sammi Bajuni, who is currently a CBS student and part of the team behind Café Campus.

However, the two party hosts do not think it is acceptable to use the name ‘Nexus’ in the headlines of events on social media.

“We think that would be too much without their consent,” says Sammi Bajuni

CBS President is sad for Café Nexus

CBS WIRE has asked the legal department at CBS whether using the Café Nexus brand for these privately arranged parties is illegal.

“Café Nexus is a unit independent from CBS. Given that our legal staff do not provide counselling to students, we cannot give advice to Café Nexus regarding whether its name is used unjustly in marketing,” says Charlotte Høegh, who is a senior consultant at CBS Legal.

The acting chairman of Café Nexus’ board, Kristine Kryger, is aware that the name ‘Café Nexus’ is not legally protected. Even so, she and CBS Students underline the lack of morals in using a company’s hard-earned brand name for one’s own benefit.

“Students are making money on these parties. We feel it is unethical to attempt to harvest the fruits of CBS Students’ hard work over decades,” Kristine Kryger says.

CBS’ president Nikolaj Malchow-Møller sympathises with Café Nexus and gives the following statement on the case:

“We have a really good collaboration with Café Nexus and I’m sad if they are experiencing other students profiting from their brand. Legally, however, they are an independent organisation, so they have to raise this issue themselves. But I encourage dialogue and truly hope that they can convince the students that it is not appropriate to market parties in a way so that people can mistake Café Nexus for being the organiser,” Nikolaj Malchow-Møller says.

A result of closing down Nexus Thursdays

CBS Students finds it “regrettable”, that the CBS Senior Management decided to close Café Nexus’ late Thursday parties, which they describe as a central component of the student environment and tradition at CBS.

“CBS’ Senior Management has decided not to bear the responsibility for facilitating a safe and controlled nightlife setting on its premises anymore. This responsibility now lies with establishments in the city that are sure to have different priorities than Cafe Nexus,” Mikkel Wallind, President of CBS Students says.

Kristine Kryger, acting chairman of Café Nexus’ board is also very unhappy that Café Nexus was forced to close its Thursday parties. She urges students to think twice before using names associated with Café Nexus when promoting private parties.

“We fully understand that students miss Thursday parties at Café Nexus as much as we do. But the solution is not to copy our brand,” she concludes.

brand Café NEXUS CBS CBS Students promotion Social media Thursday parties