What’s in a name, in a brand name, these days?
Naomi Klein believes that the bigger the logo, the less it stands for. Nike doesn’t make those sneakers: its Asian jobbers do; Nike just makes the swoosh – and spends vastly more to advertise it than it spends on the workers who actually stitch the product together.
Tommy Hilfiger doesn’t really make anything: he buys up the jackets, underwear and shoes and by the magic manipulation of an almost meaningless brand, he presents them to white youth hooked on black style, and to black youth hooked on white wealth.
The overdue justice for consumers, as Naomi Klein sees it, is that those puffed up brand names now have second meanings: Microsoft stands for monopoly; Nike and Gap mean sweatshop labor; Starbucks stands for low-pay, part-time work; McDonalds for genetic engineering and environmental damage.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Naomi Klein