In her recent article on AlterNet entitled How Corporate Branding Took Over the White House, Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, revisits branding, examining how the phenomenon has changed and developed over the 10 years since publication of the bestselling book. In the context of Barack Obama it seems self-evident that he and his team are branding virtuosos. And, as is the case with virtually all brands, when Klein looks behind the brand, she sees little substance. To have substance, she feels that social movements will need to be "the real thing" - yes, like the Coke ad.
But, the question is why are social movements having such difficulty forming in the midst of corporate corruption, the influence of lobbyists, and a populous that clearly wants change? Absent from Klein's work is an accounting for the change to social dynamics and political economy that revolutionary technological change has precipitated. I recently revised my essay, The Failure of Culture Jamming: Resistance in a Post-social World - it addresses why some of the dynamics needed to form a social movement may have changed, and where to look for change in the future. Unfortunately, there are still no clear answers...
