Within the mentioned commercialized America, whereas Klein suggests that brands attempted to have their names associated with everything from for one instance, famous film stars, Lasn encourages the readers to ask themselves how influenced they are in their purchasing decisions due to Hollywood famous images promoting brands. Still, it is considerable that both authors have in common the intention of highlighting the brands influence.
Moreover, Klein describes how marketers did not create mere ads to inform customers about new inventions, as she says these ads convince Americans that their lives would be better if they use the products. The longed goal is to create on consumers necessities above the material, through spiritual advertising in order to achieve brands identifying with culture itself. Moving the audience is the aim, and the way to obtain it is through deep advertising. As this idea evolved, the author argues how agencies focused on what brands mean to the culture and to people´s lives rather than on individual products and their attributes. Similarly, Lasn shares with Klein the perspective of commercial emotional manipulation and also argues the consequences of this sort of advertising. Firstly, the author criticizes how America´s society is manipulated by media spectacle which has colonized our mental environment. Afterwards he extends Klein´s argument about the strategies used by companies in order to create new material necessities through manipulating our emotions. According to Lasn the success of these strategies is owing to making powerful connections between deep immaterial needs and material products. Nevertheless, Lasn adds to Klein´s argument the result on people´s behaviour after a long period of exposure to this shocking ads which are targeting people´s souls. The main consequence is the “erosion of empathy”. The abuse of the emotional advertising has culminate on the evaporation of people´s compassion and even repulsion to these ads. In addition, it is also remarkable how Lasn´s latter statement is corroborated by Klein´s ideas when she writes this metaphor: “consumers are like roaches,you spray and spray them and they get immune after a while”.
Another Klein focal point -besides related with the idea of people´s immunity due to the abuse of advertising- is that agencies kept on advertisement development and consequently it appeared an advertising investment wheel where as she supports “the more you spend, the more your company is worth”. As a result, the spending on advertising increased steadily leading to a world where nothing has been left unbranded. Likewise, Lasn also writes about the establishment of an unstoppable consumption wheel on America´s society that as he says is driving people´s culture and making them sick. However, whereas Klein is focused on the advertising wheel that is adding value to the companies brands, Lasn explains that people are experiencing a consumption wheel where the more they get the more they want. According to Lasn, the guilty party of this consumer behaviour is precisely due to the constant rise on advertising that Klein argued. So, basically both different wheels mentioned by the two authors are related, yet one -consumption wheel- is the consequence of the other -advertising wheel. Moreover, according to Lasn the unique result of the abusive advertising conduct by companies is the increase on consumer´s dissatisfaction that is making theirs lives shallow and meaningless, and subsequently is polluting people´s mental environment.
Afterwards, Klein argues about the appearance of the seemingly brand crisis era . She says that it seemed to be the beginning of a period where price reductions were the aim rather than putting resources into fabulously expensive ad campaigns. However, she also points out that even though the nineties clearly seemed to be all about real value, a “no-name future”, there were still advertisers carrying on with the idea of “adding nothing but marketing”. In other words, the kind of corporate advertising that Lasn criticizes as the largest single psychological project ever undertaken by the human race. As Klein mentions, big companies such as Nike or Starbucks never went through that crisis because they always kept on with the strategy of “establishing emotional ties”, that in Lasn view -as mentioned before- these strategies were based on creating connections between deep immaterial needs and material products. Klein explains how for one instance, Starbucks does not sell just coffee, they also sell and offer a combination of comfort, commodity and community in their stores; they sell a way of life. This sort of marketing, works, sells and encourages people to contemplate Starbucks´products as a rewarding coffee experience rather than just a coffee chain. The success of these big companies is due to the imposition of the brand as a lifestyle; and as Klein states “ Brand X is not a product but a way of life, an attitude, a set of values, a look, an idea”. In other words, a world leaded by logos, brands, labels, sponsors, which as Lasn says means a nowadays media environment where the advertisers rule and the sponsor is the king. Furthermore, Lasn criticizes how America´s world -that Klein writes about it, dominated by companies based on branding as a way of life- has culminated in a lack of freedom of expression against the powerful companies that rule the world.
In my opinion, I strongly agree with the authors perspective that we are living in a completely marketed world where brands are the main feature people look at before purchasing, above taking into account other features such as quality or even price. For one instance, when buying a plain t-shirt at Tommy Hilfiger people do not take a look to the label in order to know the price, they are just focused on the logo´s brand. The nowadays mentality is that the bigger the logo´s brand of what you are wearing is, the more you will highlight that you are wearing branded clothes. Moreover, brands are synonym of being “cool”. Still, does this mean that we are just following tends and doing what everyone does? This text remind me of how we tend to accept facts or ideas without even critically questioning them. As Gramsci states everyone who is not critical and aware automatically belongs to a human group. Are we really aware and conscious about our decisions or are we merely “imposed by the external environment”? If we are, who leads these trends? In my view, I agree with the fact that the world is ruled by advertisers where sponsors are the kings and have led to a globalized world. Moreover, I also agree with the authors that we live in a manufactured world which there is not unmarketed space. A world where we are all controlled and merely labels as Lasn clearly reflects on the cover image of the book “Culture Jam: The uncooling of America”. This image shows the back side of a man with a bar code on his neck trying to reflect that we are just as products that can be controlled and monitored with a number code.
The globalized world we live in is responsible of exploiting poor countries with resources so as to make huge amounts of money. The issue is, who is behind that power abuse? As it is clearly seen in the “Economic Hitmen” multinationals and brands are, and there is lack of awareness by people of the situation. Customers do not think when they purchase for instance brand trousers that they might have been sewn by kids that are exploited and work in illegal conditions.
In my view, the world we live in is just leaded for a few powerful people that they even control the economy. A good example of this situation would be the documentary of “The Inside Job” where it is criticized that economists knew that the crisis would happen, but still were on the sideline, due to the circumstances and also factors such as money. “Economics faced lots of opposing critics, so many economic specialists were on the side of the banks, allowing the financial crisis to occur in 2008”. This shows that we live in a world that is dominated by money and not by critical thinking. To this point, I ask myself, where are people´s moral values? Do we not consider them important any more? Do we really take them into account in our daily decisions?
In my opinion, we do not realise how out of our control everything that involves money is becoming and the lack of sensitiveness that this branded world has led us to.
In conclusion, our world is developing to the point where everything has been created, invented and manipulated but what marketers might not have realised about is that people are becoming immune to all types of advertisements and these would create in my opinion a new challenge for marketers to re-promote their brands.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada.4-26.
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Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 1-50.
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Antonio Gramsci (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
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John Perkins: Economic Hitmen. (2010) [video] United States of America.
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Charles H.Ferguson, The Inside Job, 2010 [Documentary] United States of America: Sony.
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. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 5.
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. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 4.
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. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 21.
. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 38.
. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 5.
. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 7.
. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 11.
. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 12.
. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 22.
. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 9.
. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 8.
. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 11.
. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 11.
. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 13.
. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 15.
. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 14.
. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 19.
. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 20.
. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 20.
. Naomi Klein (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Canada: Knopf Canada. 23.
.Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 35.
. Kalle Lasn (1999). Culture Jam: The uncooling of America. U.S: HarperCollins. 33.
. Antonio Gramsci (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 324.
. Antonio Gramsci (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 323.
. John Perkins: Economic Hitmen. (2010) [video] United States of America.
. Charles H.Ferguson, Inside Job, 2010 [Documentary] United States of America: Sony