I just finished reading Naomi Klein's No Logo, which had been sitting around here forever. It's pretty provocative and quite thoughtful. I was interested in what she had to say about consumer branding, but the book really just uses that as a starting point to draw links between the encroachment of advertising into every facet of our lives and our public space and our current "manufacturing system" (if you can call it that) where corporations don't actually manufacture things, but instead outsource that so that we can have third world people in sweatshops working 100 hours a week in dangerous conditions to supply us with Gap t-shirts and inexpensive underwear. From there, she points out how this is related to the death of the traditional employer/employee relationship in the west - as many of us know from personal experience, there's no sense that employers have any loyalty or responsibility to their people or communities anymore.
It's worth a look if any of that interests you (and if I can get on my soapbox for a minute - it should interest you). The paperback edition includes an afterword that Klein wrote in 2002 with some interesting commentary on how 9/11 was being used to suggest that anti-globalization activists were just like terrorists.
It reminds me of a spot from the Daily Show the other night; Stewart played clips from Scott McClellan's contortions trying to explain how the total absence of WMD is No Big Deal, and of course played the 9/11 card repeatedly. "Since 9/11... 9/11 changed everything... in a post-9/11 world..."
Finally Stewart threw up an equation to explain it all:
9/11 + Whatever We Say = Shut Up!
Which about sums up how the Bush administration has been communicating with the public.
Popular Posts
-
If you have a good body, don't be afraid to flaunt it! Here are some tips to use jewelry such as belly button rings to highlight your be...
-
The smarmy little troll with the bow tie is gone, with his particularly unenlightening show soon to follow. It can't be good to be fired...
-
Geography is an often misunderstood subject, it focuses on developing skills beyond just knowing where individual countries and regions are,...
-
The agenda is the key to a successful meeting – it is the roadmap, the guide, the plan. Studies have shown that up to 70% of meetings either...
-
The idea of purchasing a personal computer may be appealing to a lot of people, however they may feel undecided as weather to go for a tradi...
-
I was born a city boy moved more to a rural setting almost 2 decades ago. The idea of fishing to me was for those who drove pick-up trucks, ...
-
When you splash out on a new mobile phone you need to ensure that you are buying the real thing as copies and fakes simply will not last! Ph...
-
The feature set included with your home VOIP phone varies greatly from carrier to carrier, so as you are comparing different offerings, mak...
-
Singapore Scotts Tower is one of the scariest and at the same time good looking buildings in the world that will be built in Singapore in th... -
If we think in terms of eating healthy, not filling- up with junk food, then perhaps grocery costs are out of control. A couple with kids co...
No comments:
Post a Comment