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Anti Brands undermining our moral values.

Brands are so powerful it is alleged that they seduce us to look alike, eat alike, and be alike. At the same time brands are spiritually empty, gradually (and almost subliminally)

This grim picture has been popularized by a glut of anti-branding messages. Eric

Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation", "Super-size me", and especially by Naomi Klein, in her book "No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies". Naomi Klein has become a

spokesperson for a worldwide movement against multinationals and their insidious brands. Klein argues that in the new global economy brands represent a huge portion of the value of a company, and increasingly, its biggest source of profits. So companies are switching from producing products to marketing aspirations, images, and lifestyles. These image mongers offer "a Barbie world for adults", says Ms. Klein, integrating their brands so fully into our lives that they cocoon us in a "brandscape". No space is untouched: schools, sports stars and even youth identify are all being co-opted by brands. "Powerful brands no longer just advertise in a magazine, they control its content", says Ms. Klein. Products, people, countries and companies are all racing to turn themselves into brands- to make their image more likeable and understandable. British Airways did it. Target and Tesco are doing it, while people from Martha Stewart to Madonna are branding themselves. Before the Oscars, movie stars are not asked about their movies but "who are they wearing", and they are wearing Vera Wang, Marc Jacobs, or other 'branded' designers. In the movie "Supersize me", American children were unable to recognize the face of their President but they had no trouble identifying Ronald McDonald. Brands threaten our health, they are destroying our environment and they are corrupting our children.

Pro Brands

The truth is people like brands. They not only simplify choices and guarantee quality, but they add fun and interest. "In technocratic and colourless times, brands bring warmth, familiarity and trust," says Peter Brabeck, boss of Nestle. They also have a cultish quality that creates a sense of belonging, they define who we are and signal our affiliations. Since brands and their corporate parents are becoming ever more entwined-both in the public perception and commercial reality-it follows that consumers can increasingly influence the behaviour of companies. Arrogance, greed and hypocrisy are swiftly punished. Popular outrage forced Nike to revamp its supply chain after being accused of running sweatshops. More than brands dictating to customers it is, in reality, the other way around. Even mighty Coca-Cola has been humbled. Think of the failure of such high-profile products as "New Coke, or the boycott of genetically modified foods by Europe's consumers. It is absurd to say that brands are too powerful; brands are the ultimate accountable institution. If your brand falls out of favour with the public, your company goes out of business. Wally Olins, a corporate identify consultant claims that "far from being evil, brands are becoming an effective weapon for holding even the largest global corporation to account".