Fordism vs. Post-Fordism in Branding

Fordism vs. Post-Fordism/Neoliberalism in Branding

• Fordism: Brands are primarily images, logos, and trademarks used to impose behavior on consumers.
• Post-Fordism/Neoliberalism: Brands become tools for consumers to create meaning and generate value. Brand image, consumer and corporate identity, and branding are as important as the products themselves.
• Self-Branding: Emphasis on lifestyle and immaterial labor. Employees are the brand, displaying brand values (e.g., Starbucks).
• Immaterial Labor: Productive activities that generate symbolic experiences rather than material goods (e.g., a pleasant service from a barista).

Culture Jamming

• Description: Artful, political, and sometimes anonymous interruption of consumer culture signals.
• Goal: Interrupting consumption processes and promoting critical assessment of advertisements.
• Examples: Simpsons opening (parodies), anti-cigarette ads, Adbusters campaigns.
• Key Thinker: Lasn
• Related Concepts: Detouring from Situationist and Pistol movements. Culture jamming as a way to uncool, like with the Critical Mass bicycle rides and uncooling the car.

Commodity Activism

• Description: A new form of commodity fetishism where previously non-economic realms (culture, society) are reshaped for economic gain.
• Characteristics:
  • Promise and peril of exploiting consumer-activism for profit.
  • Hypocrisy in branding to fool consumers.
  • Transformation of ideals into lifestyle commodities (e.g., Dove's campaigns).
• Example: Dove's campaign leveraging immaterial labor and hashtags.
• Related Terms: Commodity feminism (depoliticization of feminist ideas for consumer use).

Neoliberalism and Brand Culture

• Neoliberalism: Emphasizes individual freedom, entrepreneurship, and free markets as paths to well-being.
• Brand Culture: Non-economic aspects (culture, identity) are affirmed through the market (e.g., working at Gap, Starbucks). Consumer culture and brand identity are as crucial as material goods.
• Immaterial Labor: Produces the cultural context of a commodity.
• Key Figures: David Harvey, Maurizio Lazzarato

Alternative Hedonism

• Description: Finding pleasure in a consumer society without consuming.
• Characteristics:
  • Consuming and working less for pleasure.
  • Ethical consumption.
  • De-fetishing of goods, and raising awareness of their environmental costs.
• Examples: Bill Cunningham's perspective on consumer culture.
• Key Figures: Bill Cunningham, Soper

Dove Ads and Personal Empowerment

• Questions: How do Dove ads illustrate personal empowerment through consumerism? How do they link social action to brand identity? Should social activism be separated from consumer culture? How do these ads reveal the tension between activism and neoliberal branding?

Explore the evolution of brand identity from Fordism to Post-Fordism/Neoliberalism. This quiz discusses how brands have transitioned from being mere logos to tools for self-expression and consumer engagement. Topics include self-branding and culture jamming as a critique of consumer culture.