I am an aeroplane geek, and would be comfortable flying Boeing. But I don't think the average consumer can be blamed for thinking differently. The general brand news is the only real information they have to go on. At the very least it is a useful heuristic in the absence of actual understanding. And we can't really expect people to understand thoroughly every product and service they use.

Big companies put a lot of effort into branding, and it can have positive effects for them. The flip side is that people will see bad news with a similar lack of nuance.