My book is all about brands so far (Branded, Alissa Quart) and it relates pretty tightly to Rushkoff. Brands are a literal mark of coolness. It's iconic to see a logo that everybody is familiar with at the bottom corner of a shirt, or an easily recognized pattern embroidered in the back pockets of jeans. It symbolizes so much -- what social ranking the owner wants to be in, what the owner thinks of the brand name, how much the owner paid. Brands are a physical marker of coolness at given periods of time.
I am aware that I participate in this buying and displaying of brands. My mom sometimes jokes that companies should pay me for advertising their products, rather than paying them. Or when I wear a concert T-shirt, that music group should pay me for promoting their brand for free. Yet even without that incentive, we still buy these products because we think it's cool. Another manifestation of this branding is seen every day in my life. Very established in our daily conversation are compliments. My friends and I will compliment each other on clothes, accessories, whatever. Immediately following an "I like your skirt" or a "Those shoes are awesome" is "Where'd you get it?" We care so much about branding because advertisers and manufacturers have instilled it so deeply in us.
-- tori
In terms of bands and particular brands, do you think it's possible that we might display them on purpose? For example, I enjoy wearing band t-shirts, because I want to spread the word about some of my favorite bands. While I agree that brands are important, possibly too important, to our society, I do think that the other side of the argument is that a person might want to advertise for their favorite band or clothing company simply to try and increase the level of awareness about the group.
ReplyDelete-Tara