false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157065229m/647.jpg 647 25 We live in an era where image is nearly everything, where the proliferation of brand-name culture has created, to take one hyperbolic example from Naomi Klein's <I>No Logo</I>, "walking, talking, life-sized Tommy [Hilfiger] dolls, mummified in fully branded Tommy worlds." Brand identities are even flourishing online, she notes--and for some retailers, perhaps best of all online: "Liberated from the real-world burdens of stores and product manufacturing, these brands are free to soar, less as the disseminators of goods or services than as collective hallucinations." <p> In <I>No Logo</I>, Klein patiently demonstrates, step by step, how brands have become ubiquitous, not just in media and on the street but increasingly in the schools as well. (The controversy over advertiser-sponsored Channel One may be old hat, but many readers will be surprised to learn about ads in school lavatories and exclusive concessions in school cafeterias.) The global companies claim to support diversity, but their version of "corporate multiculturalism" is merely intended to create more buying options for consumers. When Klein talks about how easy it is for retailers like Wal-Mart and Blockbuster to "censor" the contents of videotapes and albums, she also considers the role corporate conglomeration plays in the process. How much would one expect Paramount Pictures, for example, to protest against Blockbuster's policies, given that they're both divisions of Viacom?<p> Klein also looks at the workers who keep these companies running, most of whom never share in any of the great rewards. The president of Borders, when asked whether the bookstore chain could pay its clerks a "living wage," wrote that "while the concept is romantically appealing, it ignores the practicalities and realities of our business environment." Those clerks should probably just be grateful they're not stuck in an Asian sweatshop, making pennies an hour to produce Nike sneakers or other must-have fashion items. Klein also discusses at some length the tactic of hiring "permatemps" who can do most of the work and receive few, if any, benefits like health care, paid vacations, or stock options. While many workers are glad to be part of the "Free Agent Nation," observers note that, particularly in the high-tech industry, such policies make it increasingly difficult to organize workers and advocate for change.<p> But resistance is growing, and the backlash against the brands has set in. Street-level education programs have taught kids in the inner cities, for example, not only about Nike's abusive labor practices but about the astronomical markup in their prices. Boycotts have commenced: as one urban teen put it, "Nike, we made you. We can break you." But there's more to the revolution, as Klein optimistically recounts: "Ethical shareholders, culture jammers, street reclaimers, McUnion organizers, human-rights hacktivists, school-logo fighters and Internet corporate watchdogs are at the early stages of demanding a citizen-centered alternative to the international rule of the brands ... as global, and as capable of coordinated action, as the multinational corporations it seeks to subvert." <I>No Logo</I> is a comprehensive account of what the global economy has wrought and the actions taking place to thwart it. <I>--Ron Hogan</I> 621375 1999 No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs total:2461|5:701|4:999|3:609|2:122|1:30| 2461 9602 4125 244 3 12 false false Tue Apr 07 18:24:02 -0700 2009 Sat Feb 28 16:39:19 -0800 2009 Tue Apr 07 18:24:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sat Mar 08 13:31:35 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 18 11:14:22 -0700 2008
Well, what sold me on this book was an image taken from a busy street with all of the logo's removed using Photosho...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Jan 26 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 19:46:26 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 01 11:17:50 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Sun Oct 21 08:20:29 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 29 03:36:26 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jan 11 03:01:06 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 03:12:45 -0800 2009
In this book, Klein takes on marketing, branding, a...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Nov 14 11:14:21 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 14 11:14:41 -0800 2009 The Shock Doctrine a little over a year ago. In it, Klein condemns governments’ privatization of the public...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 12:09:41 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 02:58:40 -0700 2009 No Logo and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation as parallel resources for an English class study of globablisation a few months ago. In reviewing any one of them, I see value in comparing their triumphs and failures in their coverage of similar content. Both texts cover the tran...more...]]> 3 3 false false Sat Jun 23 20:15:41 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 23 20:20:14 -0700 2007 3 1 false false Sat Mar 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Feb 17 22:01:45 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 14 04:24:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 2 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sat May 12 21:49:23 -0700 2007 Sat May 12 21:49:23 -0700 2007 1 2 false false Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Wed Jun 13 20:27:04 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 13 20:28:53 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Apr 30 07:41:15 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 07:47:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Mon Dec 15 14:52:53 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 18:48:23 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 true false Tue May 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 06:13:46 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 04:01:08 -0700 2009 2
In No Logo Naomi Klein exposes the practices of large multi-national companies and how they are infiltrating our lives, our space and how they infringe upon human rights and workers rights throughout the world....more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 11 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Aug 04 03:43:35 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 11 12:26:20 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Oct 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 22:59:01 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 01:45:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 11:23:47 -0800 2009 Mon Jun 01 22:31:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 12:34:07 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 08 13:19:59 -0700 2009
It's a good start to a larger, overarching leftist critique of the way we live now. Klein does a fine job of explaining and exhuming many of the classic discontents of Capitalism, let alone the free-market nuttiness we've come to know. It's worth reading...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Mar 08 12:55:55 -0700 2009 Wed Dec 17 12:43:09 -0800 2008 Sun Mar 08 12:55:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Oct 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Dec 07 13:05:00 -0800 2008 Fri Oct 30 15:42:29 -0700 2009
One niggling irritation throughout the book is the use of geographic terms when Klein was referring to levels of development. She consistently uses the word North to describe developed countries, and the term South to describe developing countries. Y...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=647