I am looking for links to 10 different articles/sites that are
anti-branding. By this I mean that these articles take the stance that
branding today as we know it is a bad thing, perhaps just for the
consumners, or perhaps for everyone. I would like these articles to
have originated from decent sources - i.e.
newpapers/magazines/journals etc - not just some guy on his own
website! If one or two of the articles took the form of pros & cons of
branding that would be fine. Also I would appreciate if one was some
kind of intellectual challenge on branding. The kind of thing I'm
looking for are articles which say things like 'aggressive branding is
responsible for persuading people to buy things they down want' or
perhaps more interestly the 'commodity fetishism' that Marx talks
about as one of his symptoms of capitalism. An article that presents
the case against brands would be ideal.

10 is not a fixed number, but I need at least 6 of real quality - that
really hit the nail on the head.

PS:Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' is something that I have looked at already.
But that is the sort of thing I'm after. I would like a brief summary
of each article too.

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Request for Question Clarification by omnivorous-ga on 28 Jan 2004 12:10 PST

Will --

There's actually a couple of marketing experts who say that branding
is ineffective -- that it's difficult to transfer the customer's
relationship with one product to another.  For example, Sony's
reputation for building color TVs offers little or nothing to their
personal computer division.

But it sounds as if you're more interested in the impact of branding
from a consumer's perspective, yes?

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

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Clarification of Question by will_127-ga on 29 Jan 2004 07:23 PST

I am looking for articles that take the universal perspective that
branding for one reason or another is a bad thing. Not just that
branding is sometimes not that effective - but that branding can be
damaging to society, or universally bad in other ways.

It doesn't answer your question but you are likely to find Ron English
interesting. He's a artist with a major interest in subverting brands.

Popaganda: The Art and Subversion of Ron English
http://www.popaganda.com/

Especially check out his billboard liberation art.

Popaganda: Illegal Billboards by Ron English
http://www.popaganda.com/billboards/index.shtml