It took me awhile to get around to reading No Logo, more
It took me awhile to get around to reading No Logo, and I have to say I was amply rewarded for the effort. Klein packs a whallop in her narrative as she covers the 80s and 90's corporate world as it switched from a product oriented climate to that of corporate branding with devastating consequences both at home and abroad. She does a great job of covering the terrain, pointing out the greed that permeated the market and the biggest abusers in this high stakes game of branding society.
Probably the most disconcerting chapters are those where she illustrated how deeply these brand names permeated high schools and universities in the 90s, hoping to get to the "ground zero" of their youth market. She notes how schools basically sold their souls to the devil to make up for budget shortfalls brought upon by cuts in education budgets across the country. She also notes how students fought back, as they were sick of being forced to eat this branding in both their cafeterias and the single channel "educational" television programming they got in class.
The book is as much about fighting back as it is about the media onslaught of major corporations to shape the way we think about their brands. She notes various efforts in the US, Britain and Canada to take back the streets, and remaking billboards and Internet ads into trenchant commentaries on the nature of branding.
Perhaps her most searing chapters are those where she ventures into the sweat shops around the world, illustrating the widespread labor abuses of major brands, as they no longer take responsibility for their own products. Instead, a chain of suppliers provide these products at low costs so that the brands can spend more money on branding.
It was an advertiser's heyday in the 90s, especially among 20-somethings as they found themselves to be hot property, with these companies seeking younger markets for their products. She notes the way Nike essentially "branded" Harlem, and how companies like Adidas followed suit when Run DMC's hip hop song about their Adidases became a big hit.
There are holes in her narrative, but not so much that she trips over them as Michael Moore often does. Her research is broad and she tells a compelling story, which is why this book is as relavent today as it was when it was first published in 2000. less
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