Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour are common household names for clothing and sports accessories. Walking in to about any building you will see a name brand of some product or clothing item. We recognize these items by their brand name at the drop of a hat, but what makes that particularly brand better than others. Ben Wetherbee made it very clear in his essay “Branded” that logos are terrible and big companies are the enemy. This problem has negatively affected our society because of peer pressure, advertising, and CEOs of companies. Ben Wetherbee is very clear in his essay “Branded” that logos and their corresponding companies are the enemy and a huge contributor to our corrupt society. He discusses further about how our generation is consumed …show more content…
No one wants to be the odd one out, because people like to be accepted in general. If working your way up the social ladder is to buy the newest and most expensive clothes, most adolescents do this. Children also do this but the difference is, they do it subconsciously. By seeing other children with certain brands, they remember that “so and so” wore that and he/she is my friend, so I have to have it too. From a young age, peer pressure has been evident in our lives with us knowing it or not. Wetherbee shows us that, “one can hardly set foot in a public school’s hallway without drowning under a barrage of geometric homage to capitalism” (483). This just shows again how adolescents conform to their peers in order to fit …show more content…
He takes the stand that we are not property and should not be owned by a company. In the past, logos haven’t been a definition of a culture; the definition was the style of the clothing. “Past generations have used symbols effectively to represent specific movements and ideas; they have personalized symbols” (487). Their symbols had a purpose and represented something bigger than a company with expensive shoes. He is sick and tired of our generation being suckers to the advertising ploys of big companies. They take advantage of us and attack our weaknesses to convince us to buy that
Companies realize what people need and they take it as sources to produce commodities. However, companies which have famous brands try to get people’s attention by developing their products. Because there are several options available of commodities, people might be in a dilemma to choose what product they looking for. In fact, that dilemma is not real, it is just what people want. That is what Steve McKevitt claims in his article “Everything Now”. When people go shopping there are limitless choices of one product made by different companies, all choices of this product basically do the same thing, but what makes them different is the brand’s name. Companies with brands are trying to get their consumers by presenting their commodities in ways which let people feel impressed, and that are some things they need to buy. This is what Anne Norton discussed in her article “The Signs of Shopping”. People are often deceived by some famous brands, which they will buy as useless commodities to feel they are distinctive.
It will not be exaggerated if we conclude that we are 'soaked in this cultural rain of marketing communications' through TV, press, cinema, Internet, etc. (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). But if thirty years ago the marketing communication tools were used mainly as a product-centered tactical means, now the promotional mix, and in particular the advertising is focused on signs and semiotics. Some argue that the marketers' efforts eventually are "turning the economy into symbol so that it means something to the consumer" (Williamson, cited in Anonymous, Marketing Communications, 2006: 569). One critical consequence is that many of the contemporary advertisements "are selling us ourselves" (ibid.)
Klein, Naomi. "Chapter Seven." No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. New York: Picador USA, 2000. 143-64. Print.
...nd logos are used by ad-writers in an attempt to persuade them, the public can look clearly at the underlying purpose of the advertisement. As Corbett and Connors point out, “a knowledge of rhetoric can help us to respond critically and appreciatively to advertisements, commercials, political messages, satires, irony, and double-speak of all varieties” (25). A close reading of Rhetoric and other forms of ancient rhetoric can be beneficial to a student who wishes to truly understand how advertising and commercials work. The ability to wade through advertising that only offers a mild truth, or worse yet a lie, has become a great attribute associated with post-modern American thinking. After a careful study of Rhetoric's past, we as Americans may be able to discern truth from propaganda, need instead of want, and fact from fiction.
Apple is an American multinational technology company, which designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics. Apple as a company, develops a humanistic corporate culture and strong corporate ethics, one which is characterised by “volunteerism, support of good causes & involvement in the community.” We can see these values of the business are evident throughout everything they do, from their innovative products and advertising, right up to their customer service. The products and logo alone are not enough to make huge impact on people’s sentimental side. On the other hand, apple also tries to make personal connections with people, which makes the consumers feel they are part of the brand rather than an outsider. It is this intimate feeling makes Apple a “humanist brand.” For reasons as various as its philosophy of comprehensive aesthetic design to its distinctive advertising campaigns. Apple has established a unique reputation in the consumer electronic industry. This includes a customer base that is dedicated to the company and its brand, particularly in the United
Actually, Logos is wide used by directors and producers. Why? Because humans are rational creatures and our beliefs follow a rational path. With this in mind it is not necessary have a lot of arguments to explain why this a useful resource. Humans need to be convinced and there is no more powerful persuading tool that those who appeal to logic. Basically the deduction that Spurlock shows is companies want only money and can do whatever is necessary to obtain that, if this statement is true all these big companies are malicious and the techniques used in marketing are
We connect with people through small interactions like the shared expressed frustration of waiting for a late city bus, or through the shared sorrow we feel when our favourite team loses an important game. The sociological imagination lets me connect my small work experience to how we assess advertisements and associate brands. When we see popular symbols like a Nike swoosh we either think of sports, or the corporation. Small things like inspirational stories of people from disadvantaged backgrounds encourage us to better our lives. My mere Sport Chek example helps me connect the goal of a certain brand with the goal of the corporation behind it. We are all subjected to these corporations that try to impose their ideas on us through small things, like their logos and jingles. Corporation is the company that represents a certain idea within a corporation, that idea being the brand. Corporations benefit from our tiny interactions with their brands, and make millions whether we are aware of it or not. Although Sport Chek has good intentions, they are still a corporation based on the healthy
If companies wanted to be successful in the marketplace, then they needed to understand the idea that their true product was not their product, but a lifestyle and the meaning of life itself. This is lifestyle branding. This philosophy explains why we see products internationally and specifically marketed toward teens and young adults. Lifestyle branding is why we are hearing more and more of sweatshops, “McJobs”, and the quality of the product diminishing. Nearly every corporation in America has been McDonaldized: where companies sacrifice individualization in employees and quality products for cheap, mass-produced, assembly line production. The promise of choice seems to ironically create less choice. No logo is the spirit of anti-corporate resistance. The process of branding in its simplest form is
A large majority of teens want to fit in and feel like they belong, but how far are they willing to go to fit in? The more they want to fit in the more likely they will be easily influenced by suggestions from others. During my second week of eighth grade, I felt like I wasn’t fitting in and that everyone was silently judging me and criticizing me. Of course now that I think about I don’t think anyone really cared about me, but I was more self-conscious about myself then. One day during lunch my friends and I sat next to a couple of girls who were known as the “popular” girls and I thought that maybe I would fit in more if I was friends with them. I spent the rest of that lunch hour trying to build up the courage to talk to them and at last minute I told the friendliest looking girl, that I loved her shirt and I asked her what store she bought it from. She told me that it was from Free People; she then gushed about the store and told me how everything there was amazing. She suggested that I should check it out sometime so I did. I, of course couldn’t wait to shop there. I told myself that if I shopped at Free People, I could maybe fit in with her and even be a part of the popu...
Kenner states the eighty percent of the food market industry is controlled by the top four businesses. This relates to the claim because we know where it is coming from and who controls it. Also shown in the film was the hispanic family who made poor eating choices by choosing to eat fast food due to their busy lives and the struggle to afford fruits and vegetables. On top of that, the father was unhealthy and his medicine was too expensive. Another example of logos is when the film explains how bad conditions are only for the animals we ingest. They explain how cows are fed corn because it is cheaper, though, this increases the risk of E-coli in cows. This is terrible because cows are fed things that make them fat and
In every given business, the name itself portrays different meanings. This serves as the reference point and sometimes the basis of customers on what to expect within the company. Since personality affects product image (Langmeyer & Shank, 1994), the presence of brand helps in the realization of this concept. Traditionally, brand is a symbolic manifestation of all the information connected with a company, product, or service (Nilson, 2003; Olin, 2003). A brand is typically composed of a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images, colors, and icons (Gillooley & Varley, 2001; Laforet & Saunders, 1994)). It is believed that a brand puts an impression to the consumer on what to expect to the product or service being offered (Mere, 1995). In other application, brand may be referred as trademark, which is legally appropriate term. The brand is the most powerful weapon in the market (LePla & Parker, 1999). Brands possess personality in which people associate their experience. Oftentimes, they are related to the core values the company executes.
The developmental stages of a successful campaign help to establish the product in the audience’s mind or consciousness. The stages of the Nike campaign can be described by using the Yale Five-Stage Developmental Model. Yale researchers developed this model while observing the growth of national identity. The first stage of this model is identification. Our text states that “Many products and causes develop a graphic symbol or logotype to create identification in the audience’s mind” (p. 264, Larson). The logo Nike is most famous for is “The Swoosh.” This is the term given to the symbol of winged victory that appears on Nike products. “The design of the swoosh logo was inspired by the wing from the Greek goddess Nike” (p. 3, http://shrike.depaul.edu /~mcoscino/word.html). The Nike logo’s presence can be noted in almost every aspect of the athletic world.
In the essays that we have been reading, there is a consist theme that has been occuring. This consist theme has been that there are people who are in power, and that their conscience has been covered by hot iron, becuase their minds are being controlled by their love for money, and that they have screwed up the way that the world works in the pursuit of money. The first assignment that we had was to watch the “Story of Stuff” and then had to talk about it. In the “Story of Stuff”, the main idea was that corporations cared about one thing and one thing only, making the most money, even if that meant destroying human lives and destroying the planet. In the next assignment, we had to read Naomi Klein’s essay “No Logo”, in which she tells us that the corporations found that they could make money without making any products, instead they made something called “brands”, which were nothing but concepts that did not require them to make the actual products. So instead they had several companies that treated their workers without any respect, but could make the products for the corporations at cheap costs. And in the essay “Iron Maiden” written by Jacobson and Mazur, the authors tell us about how the media has created an environment in which women honestly believe that only when they buy “brands” and torture their bodies to the horrors of unnecessary cosmetic surgery. And all of this is because there is a group of people, who have their morals controlled by their love of money, and that they have a race for who can own the most things and that nothing can get in their way, and all of this is shown by the essays that we have been studying.
Mark Hughes (2008). "Logos that became legends: Icons from the world of advertising". Retrieved March 27, 2008, from www.independent.co.uk/news/media/logos-that-became-legends-icons-from-the-world-of-advertising-768077
What is branding? Branding has been advocated as a potentially successful response to heightened market concentration; it offers the possibilities of centralized control and format standardization, and an added value or cost driven strategy can be used to differentiate the retail offering and reinforce market positioning. Brands provide informational cues for buyers about the store's merchandise quality, and favourable images of brands positively influence patronage decisions." Successful retail branding can provide a form of "insulation" against price competition and states: "Where the store brand name is itself a brand name based on a quality appeal, it will be easier to position the own brand as a premium product under the same name" (Schmidt, R., & Pioch, E., 2005). Further as consumers, we tend to think about brands as symbols like the Nike swoosh or McDonald’s golden arches; the working definition of a brand is broader. A brand is usually defined as a name, logo, symbol, words, or combination of these, intended to distinguish a particular company’s offerings from those of competitors. In this sense, the modern use of the word “brand” harkens back to its older meaning which is a distinguishing mark or burn to identify wine, livestock or other commodities by their owner (Koehn, N., 2013).