Beyond the Brand

Scott Adams predicted in his hilarious book The Dilbert Future: Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st century, that it will be totally unnecessary in the future to have an actual product in order to sell it. He wrote:

All you need is a good demo and a complete absence of social conscience [...] In the future it will be easy to find customers who are gullible enough to buy any product, no matter how worthless and stupid it is.

The brand Madonna triumphed when she won the case for the domain www.madonna.com. Madonna's brand, including music, clothes, merchandise and even wine, was now able to reach her fans in a much more efficient way, and she gave the concept of branding a whole new meaning by succesfully reinventing her image herself every couple of years.

One may remember Madonna’s Confessions tour last year, where she was singing hanging from a glittery cross wearing a crown of thorns. She outraged Christian leaders all around the world. A Church of England spokesman said: "Why would someone with so much talent seem to feel the need to promote herself by offending so many people?" David Muir of the Evangelical Alliance told the Evening Standard: "It is downright offensive. Madonna's use of Christian imagery is an abuse and it is dangerous.” Madonna has however insisted that it is not "anti-Christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous", and she said “I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing." (BBC)

The American artist Duane Hanson critizes the consumption society through his work, and his sculpture The Supermarket Lady clearly visualizes Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality.

Duane Hanson, Supermarket Lady, 1969

When going for a walk in Maastricht in wintertime, at a time when the Winterland, the Christmas fair, is set up on the Vrijthof, the contrast between the city itself and the fair becomes evident. But why is this contrast so great? Both Mark Gottdiener and Manuel Castells have explanations for this phenomenon.

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,
in the lane, snow is glistening.
A beautiful sight,
we're happy tonight,
walking in a winter wonderland.

Every year in November a feeling of melancholy comes over me when I see the first trucks arriving at the Vrijthof in Maastricht. This beautifull medieval square gets taken over by a Christmas fair, the Winterland, every year for a devastating one and a half month. Busloads of tourists come to visit the fair and pollute the whole Vrijthof. Winterland is sponsored by Bavaria, a beer company, and is open every day from 11.00 to 22.00, and its loud presence in the heart of the city cannot be ignored. It consists of an iceskating rink, traditional food and drink stalls, cafes where you can drink Glühwein and warm chocolate, a Giant Wheel, and more than fifty Christmas stalls selling all sorts of Christmas knick-knacks.

Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.

Bridget Jones Diary can essentially be seen as a film made by women for women. By using Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as an inspiration, the makers try to evoke the old-fashioned romance of the past. Bridget Jones Diary has a female director, Sharon Maguire, and its three producers were all women, as well as the script supervisor (Helen Fielding, the novelist herself). Bridget Jones Diary belongs to the woman’s film genre, which can be defined by the “centrality of its female protagonist, its attempt to deal with issues deemed important to women and its address to a female audience” (Hollinger, 2002).

The romantic comedy image of Bridget Jones Diary has been superbly marketed. As a brand identity, the term ‘romantic comedy’, despite its vagueness, carries a great commercial potency for distributors and reviewers, as these films have been incredibly popular in Hollywood, and with audiences, over the past two decades (Krutnik, 2002). Bridget Jones Diary is a great example of a romantic comedy, a ‘chickflic’, whose charm is enhanced because of its British appeal, and a sympathetic full-figured heroine with everyday embarrassments, and this led to the production of a sequel.

Not all people agree with Naomi Klein, myself included, and don’t consider branding “a company’s manipulative attempt to white-wash over third-world production, horrible labor practices, monopolistic distribution, and consumer brainwashing” (Brand Channel). Michel Chevalier and Gerald Mazzalovo, in their book Pro Logo: Brands as a factor of progress, and Sameena Ahmad, in her article called Pro Logo: Why Brands are good for you, critize Naomi Klein’s No Logo, and give another, refreshing, side of the branding story. In the words of Chris Raab, written on the website of Brand Channel: “Brands sometimes guide consumer decisions; decisions consumers make guide brand decisions. The relationship is reciprocal, not unilateral”.

The Brand Channel features the ongoing Brand Debate, and visitors are asked to take sides: one is either Pro Logo, and believes that consumers manipulate brands, or No Logo, and considers that brands manipulate consumers. Chris writes on the forum that:

Long ago in a shop far far away there were two piles of soaps, both smelled nice and looked the same. Then Soap A decided to call their soap Rainfresh and wrapped the soap in blue paper, they created a brand to separate them from the other soaps. People would feel special purchasing it and they could remember it by name, creating top-of-mind awareness of their product. And that's it! It's not a worldwide plot to exploit people, it's about choice. NO LOGO has NO POINT.

Naomi Klein and the Adbusters would not agree.

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