No Logo: No Space No Choice No Jobs

In No Logo, 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 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 are both divisions of Viacom?

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 organise workers and advocate for change.

But resistance is growing and the backlash against the brands has set in. Street-level education programmes have taught kids in the inner cities, for example, not only about Nike's abusive labour practices but about the astronomical mark-up 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 organisers, human-rights hacktivists, school-logo fighters and Internet corporate watchdogs are at the early stages of demanding a citizen-centred alternative to the international rule of the brands ... as global, and as capable of co-ordinated action, as the multinational corporations it seeks to subvert". No Logo is a comprehensive account of what the global economy has wrought and the actions taking place to thwart it. --Ron Hogan

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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 No Logo, "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."

In No Logo, 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?

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.

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." No Logo is a comprehensive account of what the global economy has wrought and the actions taking place to thwart it. --Ron Hogan

This is a really good introductory text if you're interested in the anti-corporate movement and want a good overview of the causes and conditions as well as what can be done. Klein's book is well researched, organized and presented and she makes her points without being overly pedantic. My only complaint about this book is that certain parts of it are very long-winded and could have easily been clipped from the text without losing anything, particularly Klein's exhaustive examination of sweatshops. Good if you don't mind skimming or skipping long passages.

One final note--her portrayal of Nike's Phil Knight is priceless. Buy the book if for nothing other that that!


A Must-Read   Juillet 26, 2001
Elodie Hazac (Paris)
4 sur 5 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile

For someone already interested in consumer culture and its potentially corrupting influence, I was naturally entranced by this book. Given that she was preaching to the converted, I found this book spellbinding and a page turner. She offers multiple compelling arguments in a level-headed, structured text which flies in the face of critics of consumer culture as being knee-jerk and unintelligent.

What I particularly liked is the way that she gently pointed out inherent paradoxes in her argument. Doing so by no means served to undermine her thesis. Rather, it demonstrated her grasp of complex consumer issues and her recognition that no one political philosophy can completely air-tight


An Important Treatise   Juillet 26, 2001
Elodie Hazac (Paris)
3 sur 3 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile

I believe the most important thing about this book, is that it does not simply rehash the "brands are evil" sort of anti-corporate dirt that has already received attention in recent publications. 'No Logo' does not, as is suggested in a review below, merely outline how scary and powerful the multinational corporations are. Rather, Klein's 'No Logo' takes this sort of discourse one step further, by outlining the wider democratic implications of globalisation. This also allows Klein to avoid a sense of futility in her descriptions of corporate earth - her humourous and incisive tone inspires the reader to become active, which I feel is particularly important in this critical economic crossroads, rather than pessimistic or suicidal.

'No Logo' is infinitely readable, entertaining and inspiring. It's one of those books that would, I feel, make the world a better place if everyone read it. That's my current mission, anyhow - it will be the default birthday present of the majority of my friends for the next year, at least.