A few years ago, my grandma, usually a woman of pretty good taste, bought me a hideous yellow-plaid jacket. She said, “Well it was Tommy Hilfiger,” meaning that the brand and all of the adjectives that presumably went with it—“chic,” “hip,” I don’t’ know, made it a good choice for her teenage granddaughter. I cringe when I see my friends spend so much more money than necessary on a plain white shirt from Hollister just so that they can have the tiny seagull-type bird on the chest. Most of the time these clothes are of terrible quality, with fraying threads and mis-cut seams. I could go on an entire rant about this but I’ll refrain :) Naomi Klein echoes this when she points out how companies have become so much more concerned with ads than they are with the actual product they are churning out. How weird is it that a shirt’s whole style could be about how big the brand name is emblazoned over it?
I think it’s pretty apparent how abundant brands are in our society, and also that they contribute to superficiality. However, I never really thought too much more about brands other than in terms of clothes, writing them off as just attempts to gauge status, such as Gucci. But brands are all over the place, absolutely saturating our lives. Brands in general evoke a whole image. I find it a little disconcerting when I realize, that although I don’t like to admit it, I am very affected by brands. It’s odd because even though the brand name doesn’t necessarily equal quality, we seem to be much more comfortable with things of brand name. I might choose something that is not a brand name, but I’m still often suspicious of it primarily, whereas brand names already have a point in their favor. 30 second ads during the Super Bowl cost something like $3 million a spot, and I heard they were definitely nothing to write home about (not a football fan so I didn’t see any)—even if they were all hilarious, that amount of money on less than a minute is insane...but I guess maybe very smart considering the effect such a widely-seen ad has on the public. So is there really any way to stop the escalation of the importance of brand names? Stop buying anything with a brand? I’m interested to keep reading the rest of Klein’s research to see what see has to say.
So according to Wikipedia, our favorite trusty source, one of the most famous Super Bowl ads ever was this Macintosh one from 1984:
Your post is very interesting and I completely agree with the over-emphasis that our society places on brand names.. but I am absolutely guilty of giving into that temptation. In fact that's what I plan to blog about so you will have to check that out :)
ReplyDeleteBut I found your inclusion of the 1984 commercial to be very interesting as well. Last year I spent time analyzing that ad in a Rhetoric of Advertising course. It was so interesting to look at all the detail and strategy that goes in to creating a commercial like that.
Macintosh wanted to seem new and original and different than any other personal computer out there. This ad did a fabulous job of convincing consumers that their product would keep them from being sucked into the mundane and unoriginal lifestyle shown- by everyone looking the same with the buzzed hair, black and white, un-animated and being brainwashed by the man on the screen. The success of this ad shows just how much people don't want to give into the mundane lifestyle that society sometimes creates.
Well, brands ARE everywhere beyond clothing. When I think of 'hamburgers,' I think of McDonald's golden archs or basically, yellow and red. It has almost worked its way into our subconscious. Fortunately or Unfortunately, we were born in a generation when Brands were already well developed. I grow up knowing brands all my life.
ReplyDeleteNow, I can say that brands don't matter because my budget is tight. But pretty soon, if the economy gets better, I'm gonna reach for that Tide because it probably "works better."
Brands ARE everywhere, and I hate that in some ways it feel like there is no way to escape them. I wrote about in my blog how poor people can't even escape being branded, even if most things that are brand name are significantly more expensive! Do you think that future generations will be able to escape this branding? Right now I'm not too hopeful!
ReplyDelete