There’s a pair of battered Converse sneakers under my bed, Body Shop moisturiser in the bathroom and Oakley sunglasses on the dressing table. They are part of a world of brands and siren calls, promising retro-alternative chic from shoes, sound ethical activism from toiletries and edgy urban cool from eye protection. They also speak the language of globalisation, the transnational marketing ideology that rose in the late 20th century. In No Logo, Naomi Klein sets out to chart the dominance of the branded transnational corporation in the global marketplace. She explores the loss of public space, free choice and civil liberties, the economic and social exploitation associated with branded transnationals and the growing dissatisfaction, resistance and activism directed towards these corporations.
No Logo is divided into four parts: ‘No Space’, ‘No Choice’, ‘No Jobs’ and ‘No Logo’. In ‘No Space’, Klein looks at the triumph of the branded corporation and its symbolic representation, the logo. She follows the phenomenal success of branded corporations such as Nike, The Body Shop, Levi’s, Reebok and Tommy Hilfiger during the 1990s—corporations that purport to sell not only products but images, ways of life, even political statements.
Particularly disturbing is the Faustian pact between the resource-starved US public school system and transnational corporations. This phenomenon has seen fast food franchises and movie merchandising in school cafeterias, corporate-sponsored educational TV featuring compulsory viewing quotas in return for audio visual equipment, sponsored curriculum featuring Disney movie characters and school web browsers recording the surfing patterns of students in order to tailor direct advertising to students.
In ‘No Choice’, Klein contrasts the underlying erosion of consumer choice with the apparent explosion of choice offered within a branded product line. She looks at the methods used by corporate franchises to nullify competition. These include massive price undercutting and the saturation of the market with branded product. Klein also examines the ideology behind the transnationals’ censoring of which products are available and influence on what is actually produced. For example, Wal-Mart and Blockbuster remove magazines and films that do not promote the family values formulation implicit in their brand identities.
Klein explores this dark side of branded transnationals further in ‘No Jobs’. Using oral testimony, case studies and an overwhelming array of statistical sources, she shows the standard labour practices of transnational corporations both in the West and in developing countries. Divesting brand from product manufacturing enables transnationals to shift continents and manufacturing contracts