Brands

Brands are every where around us. Living in a country like America it is impossible to escape brands and logos, because they are wrapped so tightly into our culture, especially in the younger generations. When you think about it, your every day life is consumed with brands. For me, in a single day I came in contact with at least 23 brands (that I was aware of). Many that were repeated a few times included Starbucks, Mac cosmetics, Nordstrom, etc. Starbucks might have been changed for some other coffee company if I lived somewhere besides the birthplace of the company. The others were mostly in accordance to brands that are particular to my age or gender. Though, some like my toothpaste is a necessity and there aren't a whole lot of variety to choose from. To remove these brands that I encounter would be extremely hard to do. I am from the Seattle area in an urban suburb. I would literally have to stop going anywhere or talking to anyone to not see a logo or be influenced by some sort of brand. This is exactly what companies want when they use their brands to sell a lifestyle, hence the name lifestyle branding. Some companies even going as far as paying people to tattoo their logo, as you can see pictures here. These brands influence our lives more than we will probably ever know or realize. Some would assume it might be somewhat easy to take brands out of their lives, but what would you eat, drink or wear? Just as the companies that are advertising to us in sneaky and blatant ways want it we depend on these brands to make us look cool, like an individual, a "real" woman, and any other way they are trying to portray their product/s as. The way that our culture is intertwined in brands and vice versa takes out the choice of the people. We have no choice in whether or not we engage in brands and branding, it is a part of life in the 21st century. For people in their twenties, as I am, these brands shape our decisions and affect us a great deal because we know no other way. Though there were brands when my grand parents and great grand parents were young the way that companies advertise and brand has changed and transformed to a point that we subconsciously think and see brands rather than just a logo like they might have 60, 70 or 90 years ago. As our society is now it is close to impossible to escape brands, unless you live in a remote village, which is very unlikely to have not had contact with someone from a country with brands even in a remote village. There would have to be a big change in the way our country is ran and how we think about brands. If people are unaware this is the first problem and nothing will change. Through awareness, we can try to change the way we see, think and use brands. Obviously it is a complicated and unlikely process to remove brands or ourselves from brands, but at this point it will not happen and at the rate we are going it will not be possible.