No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies

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Product Details

Author : Naomi Klein
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780676971309
Edition : 1st ed
Number of Pages : 512
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 1999-12-07
Publisher : Knopf Canada
Release Date : 1999-12-07

ASIN : 067697130X

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.ca Canadian Essential

Toronto Star columnist Naomi Klein's No Logo, published at the very end of 1999, caught the imagination of the next millennium's first generation of activists, becoming the bible for the international anti-globalization movement. Documenting the ubiquity of brand identities and the harsh labour practices and self-censorship that the megabrands enforce, No Logo is both an encyclopedic expose of the many-tentacled modern corporation and a recipe book for resistance.

From Amazon.com

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

Customer Reviews

I struggled through 61 pages before abandoning it ! (2006-01-26)

I expected to learn about the rise of branding and logo placement etc but was sadly disappointed. Klein's writing style is far too wordy, full of meaningless padding.

Example - near the start of chapter 3.

"Of course it's a classic symptom of teenage narcissism to believe that the end of history coincides exaclty with your arrival on earth. Almost every angst-ridden, Camus-reading seventeen-year-old girl finds her own groove eventually. Still there is a part of my high-school globo-claustrophobia that has never left me, and in some ways only seems to intensify as time creeps along."

It says nothing! Chapter 3 opens with a page and a half of this waffle. That's what made me close the book and abandon it, something I rarely even contemplate.

Solid facts are hard to find within these pages, you have to sieve them out.

I went for radical and found ridiculous (2005-01-29)

I like many people am frustrated with the times we live in and i started reading this book hoping for some answers/solutions/new ideas, and i didn't get much of anything. It's the same ideas over and over again, nothing new, nothing enlightening. I found klein jumps to conclusions and has a very conspiracy theoryish apporach to the whole thing. I found the way she praises the "culture jammers" ridiculous. if you're looking for a book with new insights, try reading The Rebel Sell - while it's a far from perfect book it has a very unique way of looking at things, and as opposed to reading things you already know, you can learn to look at things from a different perspective.

Everyone should read this! (2004-08-04)

It was really well organized and was a huge eye-opener for me. Some parts were really technical but still gave me a new perspective about corporations.

A little more than I needed to know (2004-04-20)

You definetly get your money's worth. Starts well and keeps you interested for about 350 pages, At that point you wish it was over, unfortunately it continues to limp on for another 200. An exhaustively thorough view of the subject.

Great and interesting read... (2004-01-26)

Naomi Klein has successfully documented the growing concern about consumerism in North America and around the world. What Klein has done in 'No Logo' is put into words a movement that was struggling for recognition. With 'No Logo', Klein has surmised the concerns of those who protest [in a literal or figurative way] the further reaches of globalization. She has also made their plight more understandable and backed it up with extensive research into the effects of corporate practices on everyday life. Klein discusses among other things, the importance of the Logo in modern society and it's growing association with, not just a brand, but a way of life and how this can be dangerous to many. This book is a great read, if not simply to understand what all the fuss is about at the next FTAA meeting. But it is also a useful tool in surmising what is taking place around us and how it can affect not only our society, but ourselves as individuals.

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