Brands of 9/12/11

Folgers

Kellog

Skippy

Cinch

Hanes

Gildan

Tony Lama

Old Spice

Chevrolet

Apple

5-Star

Dell

EmTech

Garmin

Windmier

Acer

Dove (for men)

Loréal VivePro (for men)

Hanes

Air Jordan

Jones & Mitchell

Colgate

This list of brands is a list I compiled just of products I personally used, so it does not include ones that I encountered or saw during the day. That list would have been much longer, including all the cars that passed on the street, all the options in the CUB for food and snacks, and more. Brands truly are everywhere in the world and we cannot just simply chose to ignore them. We can make a decision and a commitment in our life to consume unbranded products or only products that we need to live our lives. The problem with the American consumer is that they thrive by using convenience and comfort products. Our lives would be much more ‘difficult’ if we got rid of the ‘Sony’ and ‘Apple’ and ‘Coke’ brands; we would be bored and forced to go outside or read a book. But on the other hand, that book couldn’t have been bought or loaned from one of those “Barnes and Nobel Libraries” talked about in No Logo. In order to completely remove yourself from these brands takes an incredible amount of commitment. Food by itself would be an extremely difficult challenge for most Americans. Even the Safeway Select is still a brand. I’m lucky in that I have access to some food because my family farms and raises cattle. But for most people, they would have to find that food in a farmers market or create a relationship with a local farmer. But with that comes an increase of price, too. The ‘buy local’ and ‘organic’ movements of the past two decades are based on many things, one of which is the idea of not buying these big name brands. And because of the idea that local is better, they often charge consumers more.

Other than food, our clothes and accessories play a huge role in who we are as individuals. No Logo talks about the idea of “Brand Tribes” and how we associate ourselves with a brand or a type of brand. I think this is where we start to see some of the connection to social justice and injustice. Cinch is a brand of clothing directed to the ‘cowboy’ consumer, the horse and bull riders and ropers and rodeo type people. Wrangler is a brand that started as the ‘original cowboy jean company’ and now sells to the average hard working American. And finally Carhartt sells predominantly to the hard working, construction and farm workers of the world. Personally, for class and most every day, I prefer to wear Cinch and Wrangler clothing and cowboy boots. But along with that, people get the image that I am a cowboy and a country kid, which is completely true. But I also wear Levi-Strauss and tennis shoes. Once I have been seen as the country kid who wears cowboy boots and is a ‘hick’ I then get different looks when I come to class not wearing such attire. “I thought you cowboys never took your boots off?” And “Why aren’t you wearing your big fancy belt buckle?” Are questions I get when I don’t wear either of them. But this happens to not only country type of people. It happens when anybody, for any reason, doesn’t wear the brand of their “tribe.” All of a sudden they are an outcast, maybe not to extreme measures, but to some extent. Reasons for wearing something else could be as simple as comfort or maybe even function. A person may not be able to wear Tommy Hilfiger to work, or they may be having a bad day and want to wear Nike sweats instead of Wrangler jeans. Regardless of reason, it still causes people to take a second look at you. They may or may not pass judgment, but the fact that they look at you differently because you look or seem different is the beginning of social injustice.

But what can we do about it? I already said that it would be extremely difficult to not buy these big brands. The best way we can fight this connection of brands and injustices and globalization is to not brand ourselves. Buy, use, and wear products that fit our lives, but don’t completely associate with one brand, and people will be less likely to associate you with that type of person.  Even though we are surrounded by brands every day, remain an unbranded individual.