No Logo

Last updated
No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies
No Logo cover.jpg
Front cover of No Logo
Author Naomi Klein
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Subject Alter-globalization
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher Knopf Canada, Picador
Publication date
December 1999
Media typePrint (hardcover & paperback)
Pages490 (first edition)
ISBN 0-312-20343-8
OCLC 43271949
Followed by Fences and Windows  

No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies is a book by the Canadian author Naomi Klein. First published by Knopf Canada and Picador in December 1999, [1] [2] shortly after the 1999 Seattle WTO protests had generated media attention around such issues, it became one of the most influential books about the alter-globalization movement and an international bestseller. [3]

Contents

Focus

The book focuses on branding and often makes connections with the anti-globalization movement. Throughout the four parts ("No Space", "No Choice", "No Jobs", and "No Logo"), Klein writes about issues such as sweatshops in the Americas and Asia, culture jamming, corporate censorship, and Reclaim the Streets. She pays special attention to the deeds and misdeeds of Nike, The Gap, McDonald's, Shell, and Microsoft – and of their lawyers, contractors, and advertising agencies. Many of the ideas in Klein's book derive from the influence of the Situationists, an art/political group founded in the late 1950s. [4]

While globalization appears frequently as a recurring theme, Klein rarely addresses the topic of globalization itself, and when she does, it is usually indirectly. She goes on to discuss globalization in much greater detail in her book Fences and Windows (2002).

Summary

The book comprises four sections. The first three sections deal with the negative effects of brand-oriented corporate activity, while the fourth and final section discusses various movements that arose in opposition to the corporate activities discussed in the rest of the book.

"No Space"

The book begins by tracing the history of brands. Klein argues that there has been a shift in the usage of branding and gives examples of this shift to "anti-brand" branding. Early examples of brands were often used to put a recognizable face on factory-produced products. These slowly gave way to the idea of selling lifestyles. According to Klein, in response to an economic crash in the late 1980s (due to the Latin American debt crisis, Black Monday (1987), the savings and loan crisis, and the Japanese asset price bubble), corporations began to seriously rethink their approach to marketing and to target the youth demographic, as opposed to the baby boomers, who had previously been considered a much more valuable segment.

The book discusses how brand names such as Nike or Pepsi expanded beyond the mere products which bore their names, and how these names and logos began to appear everywhere. As this happened, the brands' obsession with the youth market drove them to further associate themselves with whatever the youth considered "cool". Along the way, the brands attempted to associate their names with everything from movie stars and athletes to grassroots social movements.

Klein argues that large multinational corporations consider the marketing of a brand name to be more important than the actual manufacture of products; this theme recurs in the book, and Klein suggests that it helps explain the shift to production in Third World countries in such industries as clothing, footwear, and computer hardware.

This section also looks at ways in which brands have "muscled" their presence into the school system, and how in doing so, they have pipelined advertisements into the schools and used their position to gather information about the students. Klein argues that this is part of a trend toward targeting younger and younger consumers.

"No Choice"

In the second section, Klein discusses how brands use their size and clout to limit the number of choices available to the public – whether through market dominance (e.g., Wal-Mart) or through aggressive invasion of a region (e.g., Starbucks). Klein argues that each company's goal is to become the dominant force in its respective field. Meanwhile, other corporations, such as Sony or Disney, simply open their own chains of stores, preventing the competition from even putting their products on the shelves.

This section also discusses the way that corporations merge with one another in order to add to their ubiquity and provide greater control over their image. ABC News, for instance, is allegedly under pressure not to air any stories that are overly critical of Disney, its parent company. Other chains, such as Wal-Mart, often threaten to pull various products off their shelves, forcing manufacturers and publishers to comply with their demands. This might mean driving down manufacturing costs or changing the artwork or content of products like magazines or albums so they better fit with Wal-Mart's image of family friendliness.

Also discussed is the way that corporations abuse copyright laws in order to silence anyone who might attempt to criticize their brand.

"No Jobs"

In this section, the book takes a darker tone and looks at the way in which manufacturing jobs move from local factories to foreign countries, and particularly to places known as export processing zones. Such zones often have no labor laws, leading to dire working conditions.

The book then shifts back to North America, where the lack of manufacturing jobs has led to an influx of work in the service sector, where most of the jobs are for minimum wage and offer no benefits. The term "McJob" is introduced, defined as a job with poor compensation that does not keep pace with inflation, inflexible or undesirable hours, little chance of advancement, and high levels of stress. Meanwhile, the public is being sold the perception that these jobs are temporary employment for students and recent graduates, and therefore need not offer living wages or benefits.

All of this is set against a backdrop of massive profits and wealth being produced within the corporate sector. The result is a new generation of employees who have come to resent the success of the companies they work for. This resentment, along with rising unemployment, labour abuses abroad, disregard for the environment, and the ever-increasing presence of advertising breeds a new disdain for corporations.

"No Logo"

The final section of the book discusses various movements that have sprung up during the 1990s. These include Adbusters magazine and the culture-jamming movement, as well as Reclaim the Streets and the McLibel trial. Less radical protests are also discussed, such as the various movements aimed at putting an end to sweatshop labour.

Klein concludes by contrasting consumerism and citizenship, opting for the latter. "When I started this book," she writes, "I honestly didn't know whether I was covering marginal atomized scenes of resistance or the birth of a potentially broad-based movement. But as time went on, what I clearly saw was a movement forming before my eyes." [5]

Responses

A cover of The Economist (8 September 2001) in reference to No Logo 'The Economist' cover (September 8, 2001).png
A cover of The Economist (8 September 2001) in reference to No Logo

After the book's release, Klein was heavily criticized by the newspaper The Economist , leading to a broadcast debate with Klein and the magazine's writers, dubbed "No Logo vs. Pro Logo". [6]

The 2004 book The Rebel Sell (published as Nation of Rebels in the United States) specifically criticized No Logo, stating that turning the improving quality of life in the working class into a fundamentally anti-market ideology is shallow. [7]

Nike published a point-by-point response to the book, refuting each of the statements Klein had made about the company's labor practices. [8]

Awards

In 2000, No Logo was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award in 2000. [9]

In 2001, the book won the following awards:

Editions

Several imprints of No Logo exist, including a hardcover first edition, [12] a subsequent hardcover edition, [13] and a paperback. [14] A 10th anniversary edition was published by Fourth Estate [15] that includes a new introduction by the author. Translations from the original English into several other languages have also been published. [16] The subtitle, "Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies", was dropped in some later editions. [17]

Video

Naomi Klein explains her ideas in the 40-minute video No Logo – Brands, Globalization & Resistance (2003), directed by Sut Jhally. [18]

Legacy

Members of the English rock group Radiohead have stated that the book influenced them particularly during the making of their fourth and fifth albums, Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), respectively. (The albums were recorded over the same sessions.) The band recommended the book to fans on their website and considered calling the album Kid A "No Logo" for a time. [19] Argentine artist Indio Solari wrote a song for his first solo album named "Nike es la cultura" ("Nike is the culture"), in which he says, "You shout No Logo! Or you don't shout No Logo! Or you shout No Logo No!" in reference to this book. [20]

Argentine-American rock singer Kevin Johansen wrote a song, "Logo", inspired by Klein's book. A copy of No Logo is even used in the official video for the song. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naomi Klein</span> Canadian author and activist (born 1970)

Naomi Klein is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses; support of ecofeminism, organized labour, and leftism; and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism and capitalism. As of 2021, she is an associate professor, and professor of climate justice at the University of British Columbia, co-directing a Centre for Climate Justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Logo</span> Graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition

A logo is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or to include the text of the name that it represents as in a wordmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweatshop</span> Workplace that has socially unacceptable working conditions

A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. The manual workers are poorly paid, work long hours, and experience poor working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, or uncomfortably/dangerously high or low temperatures. The work may be difficult, tiresome, dangerous, climatically challenging, or underpaid. Workers in sweatshops may work long hours with unfair wages, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage; child labor laws may also be violated. Women make up 85 to 90% of sweatshop workers and may be forced by employers to take birth control and routine pregnancy tests to avoid supporting maternity leave or providing health benefits. The Fair Labor Association's "2006 Annual Public Report" inspected factories for FLA compliance in 18 countries including Bangladesh, El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Malaysia, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, China, India, Vietnam, Honduras, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and the US. The U.S. Department of Labor's "2015 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor" found that "18 countries did not meet the International Labour Organization's recommendation for an adequate number of inspectors."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subvertising</span> Parody advertising

Subvertising is the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. The cultural critic Mark Dery coined the term in 1991. Subvertisements are anti-ads that deflect advertising's attempts to turn the people's attention in a given direction. According to author Naomi Klein, subvertising offers a way of speaking back to advertising, ‘forcing a dialogue where before there was only a declaration.’ They may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a satirical manner.

<i>Adbusters</i> Canadian nonprofit organization

The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia. Adbusters describes itself as "a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age."

Shoppers Drug Mart Inc., commonly known as Shoppers is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in ten provinces and two territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-consumerism</span> Opposition to excessive systemic buying and use of material possessions

Anti-consumerism is a sociopolitical ideology that is opposed to consumerism, the continual buying and consuming of material possessions. Anti-consumerism is concerned with the private actions of business corporations in pursuit of financial and economic goals at the expense of the public welfare, especially in matters of environmental protection, social stratification, and ethics in the governing of a society. In politics, anti-consumerism overlaps with environmental activism, anti-globalization, and animal-rights activism; moreover, a conceptual variation of anti-consumerism is post-consumerism, living in a material way that transcends consumerism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sut Jhally</span> Film director and producer (born 1955)

Sut Jhally is a professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, whose work focuses on cultural studies, advertising, media, and consumption. He is the producer of more than 40 documentaries on media literacy topics and the founder and executive director of the Media Education Foundation.

Charles Derber is an American Professor of Sociology at Boston College. His work focuses on the crises of capitalism, globalization, corporate power, neo-fascism, American militarism, the culture of hegemony, the climate crisis, and the new peace and global justice movements.

Anti-sweatshop movement refers to campaigns to improve the conditions of workers in sweatshops, i.e. manufacturing places characterized by low wages, poor working conditions and often child labor. It started in the 19th century in industrialized countries such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to improve the conditions of workers in those countries. These campaigns are meant to improve the working conditions through advocacy for higher wages, safer conditions, unionization and other protections. These campaigns are meant to improve the working conditions through advocacy for higher wages, safer conditions, unionization and other protections. While they are meant to undermine the reputation of companies using sweatshop labor, they are not statistically significant as intended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brand</span> Identification for a good or service

A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and store value as brand equity for the object identified, to the benefit of the brand's customers, its owners and shareholders. Brand names are sometimes distinguished from generic or store brands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nike, Inc.</span> American athletic equipment company

Nike, Inc. is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, United States. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$46 billion in its fiscal year 2022.

<i>Fences and Windows</i> Non-fiction book by Naomi Klein

Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate is a 2002 book by Canadian journalist Naomi Klein and editor Debra Ann Levy. The book is a collection of newspaper articles, mostly from The Globe and Mail, with a few magazine articles from The Nation and speech transcripts. The articles and speeches were all written by Klein in the 30 months after the publication of her first book, No Logo (1999), from December 1999 to March 2002. The articles focus upon the anti-globalization movement, including protest events and responses by law enforcement. The book was published in North America and the United Kingdom in October 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture jamming</span> Form of protest to subvert media culture

Culture jamming is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It attempts to "expose the methods of domination" of mass society.

<i>Freedom of Expression</i> (book) 2005 book by Kembrew McLeod

Freedom of Expression® is a book written by Kembrew McLeod about freedom of speech issues involving concepts of intellectual property. The book was first published in 2005 by Doubleday as Freedom of Expression®: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity, and in 2007 by University of Minnesota Press as Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property. The paperback edition includes a foreword by Lawrence Lessig. The author recounts a history of the use of counter-cultural artistry, illegal art, and the use of copyrighted works in art as a form of fair use and creative expression. The book encourages the reader to continue such uses in art and other forms of creative expression.

The National Business Book Award is an award presented to Canadian business authors. The award, presented every year since 1985, is sponsored by Bennett Jones, The Globe and Mail, and The Walrus, DeGroote, and supported by CPA Canada and with prize management by Freedman & Associates.

Anti-corporate activism is activism directed against the private sector, particularly larger corporations. It is premised on the belief that the activities and impacts of big business are detrimental to the good of the public and democratic process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alter-globalization</span> Social movement

Alter-globalization is a social movement whose proponents support global cooperation and interaction, but oppose what they describe as the negative effects of economic globalization, considering it to often work to the detriment of, or to not adequately promote, human values such as environmental and climate protection, economic justice, labor protection, protection of indigenous cultures, peace and civil liberties. The movement is related to the global justice movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-globalization movement</span> Worldwide political movement against multinational corporations

The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist movement, anti-corporate globalization movement, or movement against neoliberal globalization. There are many definitions of anti-globalization.

Blockadia is a global anti-extractivism movement; and a roving, transnational conflict zone where everyday people obstruct development of extractive projects, especially in the fossil fuel industry. Blockadia resistance movements differ from mainstream environmentalism by use of confrontational tactics such as civil disobedience, mass arrests, lockdowns, and blockades to contest perceived threats arising from extractivist projects’ contributions to global climate change and local environmental injustice. Some researchers have concluded that Blockadia contributes to a transition toward a more just society.

References

  1. "No Logo by Naomi Klein". RandomHouse.ca. Archived from the original on 2 October 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  2. Klein, Naomi (2000-12-08). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies . ISBN   0312271921.
  3. "Klein teams up with Cuaron for anti-globalization short". CBC News. 2007-09-06. Archived from the original on January 16, 2009. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
  4. "Brand Names". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  5. Klein, Naomi (2009). No space, no choice, no jobs, no logo : taking aim at the brand bullies (10th anniversary ed.). Toronto: Vintage Canada. p. 443. ISBN   9780307399090.
  6. "WNHC News Debate: Pro Logo vs. No Logo".
  7. Heath, Joseph; Potter, Andrew (2004). The Rebel Sell . Ontario: Harper Perennial. ISBN   1841126551.
  8. "NikeBiz | Labor | No Logo Letter". 2001-06-18. Archived from the original on 2001-06-18. Retrieved 2017-07-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  9. "Guardian First Book Award 2000". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  10. "Winner". National Business Book Award. 2001. Archived from the original on 2011-07-14.
  11. "French Prix Médiations". senat.fr. 2001. Archived from the original on 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2009-03-16.
  12. Klein, Naomi (2000). No Logo (first ed.). ISBN   0-676-97130-X.
  13. Klein, Naomi (2000-01-15). No Logo (hardcover ed.). ISBN   0-312-20343-8.
  14. Klein, Naomi (2000-12-08). No Logo (paperback ed.). ISBN   0-312-27192-1.
  15. Klein, Naomi (2009-10-29). No Logo (10th anniversary ed.). Fourth Estate. ISBN   978-0-00-734077-4.
  16. "Publication Information for No Logo | Naomi Klein". www.naomiklein.org. Archived from the original on 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2017-01-30.
  17. Formats and Editions of No logo : no space, no choice, no jobs [WorldCat.org]. OCLC   223251234.
  18. Jhally, Sut (Director) & Klein, Naomi (2003). No Logo – Brands, Globalization & Resistance. ISBN   1-893521-85-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. Eccleston, Danny (October 2000). "(Radiohead article)". Q Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2007-03-18.
  20. CMTV. "CMTV - Letra NIKE ES LA CULTURA de Indio Solari". CMTV (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  21. Johansen, Kevin. "'Logo' music video". Youtube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-11. Retrieved September 3, 2010.