Commercials, t-shirts, jingles, mascots, and logos, they all contribute to our corporate awareness, but at what cost and to what effect. I was challenged by my professor to keep a list of all the brands and logos I encounter in a day at the university and think about how they impact me, which, at first glance, seems simple enough of a task. At first, I looked at just clothing. But then I realized, even clothing is too broad to document in an organized manner. So even that was segmented, I documented casual wear, sports wear, accessories, backpacks, etc. Which brought me to a single realization: It can’t be done.
There isn’t enough time in the day for me to accurately record the number of brands I am bombarded with on a daily basis, but their impact is clear; I can look at any given person and not have the slightest clue who they are, but in general I will know what brands they are decked in. Yet, this is not the end of the effects, upon further examination I can make out a style, or vision if you will, that the person may subscribe to. Some companies pander to the “American dream”, some to success and wealth, and yet many others attach themselves to the other myriads of archetypes we cling to. When I keep this knowledge in mind with Dunbar’s number, I start to worry. Dunbar’s number is the idea that each human can only maintain social interaction with so many people, between 100 and 200. I worry that each company takes up a slot in my memory as it presents itself as a personal conversation about what the norms in life are and my expectations from it.
Surely having my mind occupied with slogans and logos is worthy of worry, but upon watching “No Logo” a video based on a book by the same name and written by Naomi Klein, I came upon a deeper realization. Each conversation that I actively engage in keeps me from asking the important questions, “Where did this come from?”, “Was it made safely”, “Was it made by children or exploited people”, and, lastly, “who benefits from my purchase”. Branding allows us to turn a blind eye to many social justice issues by worrying instead that we are buying the appropriate goods to solidify our social status among peers or bond us together by subscribing to the same corporate vision.
When purchasing the latest tech gadget from Apple, Google, etc we, myself included, are often too wrapped up in the moment to think outside of ourselves. Apple is a well known partner with Foxconn Technology Group with well documented issues with suicide in their Chinese plants. Often, “workers at Foxconn’s Shenzhen plant worked 13 days straight, 12 hours a day, to produce the first generation of Apple’s iPad”, according to a post on Wired Magazine’s website (www.wired.com). Many of the workers share the brunt of their human contact with people who don’t even speak the same dialect all while sharing eight person rooms. It really begs the question, what does “made in China” really mean?
The ills of manufacturing are one thing, but what happens when we are all said and done with the devices? While this issue has seen improvement over the years, many companies still unethically dump their left over electronics waste in developing nations and their villages.
There isn’t enough time in the day for me to accurately record the number of brands I am bombarded with on a daily basis, but their impact is clear; I can look at any given person and not have the slightest clue who they are, but in general I will know what brands they are decked in. Yet, this is not the end of the effects, upon further examination I can make out a style, or vision if you will, that the person may subscribe to. Some companies pander to the “American dream”, some to success and wealth, and yet many others attach themselves to the other myriads of archetypes we cling to. When I keep this knowledge in mind with Dunbar’s number, I start to worry. Dunbar’s number is the idea that each human can only maintain social interaction with so many people, between 100 and 200. I worry that each company takes up a slot in my memory as it presents itself as a personal conversation about what the norms in life are and my expectations from it.
Surely having my mind occupied with slogans and logos is worthy of worry, but upon watching “No Logo” a video based on a book by the same name and written by Naomi Klein, I came upon a deeper realization. Each conversation that I actively engage in keeps me from asking the important questions, “Where did this come from?”, “Was it made safely”, “Was it made by children or exploited people”, and, lastly, “who benefits from my purchase”. Branding allows us to turn a blind eye to many social justice issues by worrying instead that we are buying the appropriate goods to solidify our social status among peers or bond us together by subscribing to the same corporate vision.
When purchasing the latest tech gadget from Apple, Google, etc we, myself included, are often too wrapped up in the moment to think outside of ourselves. Apple is a well known partner with Foxconn Technology Group with well documented issues with suicide in their Chinese plants. Often, “workers at Foxconn’s Shenzhen plant worked 13 days straight, 12 hours a day, to produce the first generation of Apple’s iPad”, according to a post on Wired Magazine’s website (www.wired.com). Many of the workers share the brunt of their human contact with people who don’t even speak the same dialect all while sharing eight person rooms. It really begs the question, what does “made in China” really mean?
The ills of manufacturing are one thing, but what happens when we are all said and done with the devices? While this issue has seen improvement over the years, many companies still unethically dump their left over electronics waste in developing nations and their villages.
Take this image from Ghana 
www.nytimes.com A dumping ground for untold numbers of companies, government offices, and developed societies at large. The people of this area raise their children in an environment where they are subject to mercury, lead, numerous heavy metals, and untold hazardous chemicals. And they do so willingly, as an exploited culture, because it is a way of life. They salvage what precious metals, like copper, they can by burning the giant heaps of electronic waste. These are just some of the effects of globalization and the companies who live off of it. Cheap labor, cheap dumping, and little responsibility are not among any of the qualities broadcast to us by our favorite brands.
www.nytimes.com A dumping ground for untold numbers of companies, government offices, and developed societies at large. The people of this area raise their children in an environment where they are subject to mercury, lead, numerous heavy metals, and untold hazardous chemicals. And they do so willingly, as an exploited culture, because it is a way of life. They salvage what precious metals, like copper, they can by burning the giant heaps of electronic waste. These are just some of the effects of globalization and the companies who live off of it. Cheap labor, cheap dumping, and little responsibility are not among any of the qualities broadcast to us by our favorite brands. All of these issues brings us back to the idea of social justice and simple economics. Economics, in its simplest form, is a democracy (so long as monopolistic and oligopolistic control is not in play) where we approve of, and support, companies by voting with our money. Ultimately, we, as consumers, are just as accountable, if not more so, for these ills and many others left untold. We buy our fetishes and totems to reinforce our perceived lifestyles and preconceptions about norms to ease our insecurities, we call it “the American Dream” and we never question it. We could go to capital hill and raise our angry pitchforks, but to what point? We reside in a post democracy where corporate and lobby (not always mutually exclusive) interests far exceed our voice. Where corporations can donate unlimited moneys to Super PACs to buy commercials for the candidate that will support them and the rules they need to keep their overhead cheap and their profit margins at record highs. Ultimately, the power resides with our dollars and the responsibility with ourselves, to educate, to support responsible, progresive companies, and to lead the lifestyle of our choosing, not the one sold to us on the backs of exploited people.
