I just see it as being a service provider. How can you take responsibility for something that is nothing to do with you?
For instance we do all the marketing for Urban Splash, a large property developer in the North West. Because we're very proud of this and they are a high profile company, we generally leave our "Designed by..." tag on any printed literature. If however they turned out to be crooks and were selling dodgy flats why would that be anything to do with us? I can understand why it might (wrongly) effect our reputation, but in what terms would it be right to take "responsibility"?
The franchise comparison isn't correct in my opinion. You should know this market Robin!