Klein, Naomi. No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. New York:
Picador USA, 1999. 490 pages. Website at www.nologo.org
The daughter of American draft expatriates, Canadian Naomi Klein
came out with this stunning book just as the Seattle demonstrators began
addressing some of the same issues. This was a four-year effort, almost a
"Das Kapital" for Generation Y. Klein is mainly concerned with the marketing
influence of corporations such as Nike. But to her credit, she also visits
a free-trade sweat zone in the Philippines. (How can labor organize there,
when a strike would mean that the U.S. contractor merely switches to another
contractor in some other sweat zone within a week?) Klein even has an
excellent chapter on the shortcomings of recent campus-based activism,
and another on the crummy service jobs available for young people today.
There are problems with this book as well. Some of her analysis of
marketing and branding should be focused on the overproduction that leads
to false consciousness and over-consumerism. Add to this the huge role
played today by speculative international finance, which is basically
nonproductive. There's more happening here than branding; Nike's swoosh logo
phenomenon is more of a symptom than the real problem. In the end, Klein's
fascination with "culture jamming" and adbusting (painting moustaches on
billboards, for example) won't provide the answers and activism that we
need. Nevertheless, this important book should be read by everyone.
ISBN 0-312-20343-8
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