diff --git a/goodnews/enrich.py b/goodnews/enrich.py
index 966e7ac..1f2fa4e 100644
--- a/goodnews/enrich.py
+++ b/goodnews/enrich.py
@@ -34,11 +34,12 @@ MAX_REDIRECTS = 3
 _META_RE = re.compile(rb"<meta\b[^>]*>", re.IGNORECASE)
 _HEAD_END_RE = re.compile(rb"</head>", re.IGNORECASE)
 
-# Substrings that mark a branded/generic share image rather than the article's
-# own picture (e.g. BBC burns "BBC NEWS" into branded_news; NPR uses a default).
-# We'd rather show no image (typographic hero) than a competitor logo.
+# Substrings that mark a generic placeholder/default share image rather than the
+# article's own picture (e.g. NPR's facebook-default). We'd rather show no image
+# (typographic hero) than a generic logo card. NOTE: do NOT add "branded_news" —
+# that's BBC's normal CDN path for real article photos, so rejecting it threw away
+# every BBC hero image and fell back to the tiny RSS thumbnail.
 _GENERIC_IMAGE_MARKERS = (
-    "branded_news",
     "facebook-default",
     "default-wide",
     "default-fb",
diff --git a/tests/test_enrich.py b/tests/test_enrich.py
index 8510caf..7afde6d 100644
--- a/tests/test_enrich.py
+++ b/tests/test_enrich.py
@@ -71,12 +71,15 @@ def test_enrich_upgrades_existing_feed_image(tmp_path):
     c.close()
 
 
-def test_rejects_branded_and_generic_share_images():
-    assert og_image_from_html(b'<meta property="og:image" content="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/x.jpg">') is None
+def test_rejects_generic_share_images():
+    # genuine placeholder/default share images are skipped
     assert og_image_from_html(b'<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://media.npr.org/include/images/facebook-default-wide-s.jpg">') is None
-    # a real article image still comes through
+    assert og_image_from_html(b'<meta property="og:image" content="https://x.com/og-default.jpg">') is None
+    # a real article image comes through
     assert og_image_from_html(b'<meta property="og:image" content="https://x.com/real-photo.jpg">') == "https://x.com/real-photo.jpg"
-    # if the first og is branded but a later one is real, take the real one
-    html = (b'<meta property="og:image" content="https://x.com/branded_news/logo.jpg">'
+    # BBC's branded_news path is a REAL photo path, not a placeholder — keep it
+    assert og_image_from_html(b'<meta property="og:image" content="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/x.jpg">') == "https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/x.jpg"
+    # if the first og is a generic placeholder but a later one is real, take the real one
+    html = (b'<meta property="og:image" content="https://x.com/og-default.jpg">'
             b'<meta property="og:image" content="https://x.com/article.jpg">')
     assert og_image_from_html(html) == "https://x.com/article.jpg"