Media Profiles

The Branding of Naomi Klein

By Leslie Regan Shade
October 21, 2005

Naomi Klein’s 2000 book No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies catapulted onto the international scene and became for many the bible of the anti-globalization movement. It has since been translated into sixteen other languages and has been on the bestseller lists in Canada and the United States. It was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, received Le Prix Médiations in France, and even won Canada’s Business Book Award! In No Logo, Klein provides a trenchant critique of lifestyle branding, labour abuses, and anti-corporate resistance, which were the bases of much of the demonstrating against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C., and, in Quebec City, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. Before writing No Logo, Klein was a journalist for the Toronto Star, This Magazine, and the University of Toronto’s Varsity newspaper. Her articles have appeared in various international publications, including The Nation, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Newsweek International, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Ms. Magazine. She was an internationally syndicated column for The Globe and Mail and The Guardian.

In No Logo, Klein discusses the concept of branding and brand bombing in our contemporary environment, epitomized by Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Disney, Nike, and Levi’s (see also the Elliot chapter in Mediascapes). Looking at the state of cultural expansionism in branding (from the sheer size of the logos to the ubiquity of their placement, dubbed “brand bombing”), Klein also provides a critique of the branding ideology: the pushing of a particular lifestyle through clothes, music, food, cars, the media, and public space. She is particularly interested in the marketing of youth culture—or, as she refers to it, the “branding of cool”—through the examples of Tommy Hilfiger and hip-hop culture, to the commercialization of schools through Channel One and Youth News Network (YNN).

Corporate responsibility is another theme woven into her book, as she examines the labour practices of brand-name transnational corporations, including Nike, which has been criticized for its sweatshops and unsafe working conditions. (See for instance the Campaign for Labor Rights at http://www.campaignforlaborrights.org/ and Global Exchange’s Nike Campaign at http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike /)

Dissatisfaction with the current globalization agenda has manifested itself, as Klein shows, through culture jamming—creating media hoaxes, billboard “liberations” and spoofing ads (see Adbusters at www.adbusters.org), the Reclaim the Streets movement, and anti-corporate activism. Examples of the latter that Klein analyzes include the anti-sweatshop movement, the campaign against Shell and their oil drilling in the Niger Delta, and the McLibel trial against McDonald’s (see the McSpotlight Web site at http://www.mcspotlight.org/). Klein also analyzes in No Logo the involvement of youth in the anti-globalization movement and their strategies for “globalization from below” (see the Karim chapter in Mediascapes).

Since No Logo’s publication, the anti-globalization movement has matured and received considerable critical treatment in the press. Klein too has received much coverage, including a cover story in Maclean’s magazine, leading some to joke about the branding of Naomi Klein. However, her admonition that we should be thought of as citizens before consumers has struck a salient note for many, including many youth and university students.

With partner Avi Lewis, they directed the popular film The Take (2004), a documentary about the collapse of the Argentine economy and the mobilizing efforts of workers to take control of their factories (see http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/thetake/).

Resources
No Logo site

Klein columns in The Guardian

Naomi Klein’s New New Left, by Tamara Straus, AlterNet, August 22, 2000