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blue bits. red rocks.
Tuesday 26 May 2009

Brands were invented to substitute for the real connections we had to people, places, and value. The brand was meant to disconnect, so branded movements and ideologies by their very nature tend toward polarization and extremism. Antiabortion and pro- choice constituencies are pushed to the edges by their highly branded, hotly worded campaigns, and thus less likely to rally around their common cause—reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. While Saatchi & Saatchi’s “loyalty beyond reason” might be great for a cereal’s “consumer tribe,” it’s the surest path away from a reasonable engagement with real life’s pressing issues. Activists on MySpace compete for numbers of “friends” willing to become associated with a particular cause, but fail to realize that signing on to a social cause is accomplished with the same mouse click as signing on to be a friend of the Nike Swoosh. Employing the techniques of marketing to repair the ravages of corporatism is a losing proposition; branding only disconnects us further from the means to rebuild what we have lost. The medium becomes the message as Big Activism becomes just another Big Blank. By attempting to beat them at their own game, we become part of the very thing we should be dismantling. Douglas Rushkoff

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