Interesting Fast Company column by Rob Walker in this month's issue (his column there is called Murketing and you can read it here) Unmarketable fans may want to take a look at, that looks at the various strata of brand relationships.
Here in Cambodia, though, branding is a whole different ballgame. Copyright, too. The symbols have all become dissociated from their original meanings in a way I haven't figured out how to explain yet. My T-shirt for the day, for example, shows Tin Tin in the Forests of Cambodia, whereupon he stumbles upon some decomposing bodies. On the front of the shirt, you are urged to avoid landmines (Danger! Mines!!). Which. I mean. Isn't even a useful symbol on a T shirt. Or in the Russian Market a few days ago, I saw a shirt with a Polo label but embroidered with an Abercrombie logo knockoff. A popular video here displays a woman caressing a minivan emblazoned with a Bridgestone logo as she sings about her cheating boyfriend (I think). One of my roommates wears nothing but Playboy paraphenalia, but is the primmest and most proper of all the girls. She would be horrified to find out what the symbol symbolizes. (The last Leadership Resident taught them the devil horns and explained that it meant rock and roll. They asked for more details, about where it came from and who started doing it, and now it's sort of considered too negative for them. They have replaced its use with the high five.)
But of course, these aren't just markers of naked ladies, sporty white men, comic-book geeks, or tires. They are symbols of a culture that takes these things for granted. They are symbols not of these things, but of a culture that has access to these things. Of affluence and choice, to or not to purchase these things, whatever you want.
So while these things all have strict symbols inside the world in which they thrive and, perhaps, work -- the developed world -- they have entirely different meanings elsewhere, and I'll be interested in mapping how they relate. Or if they do at all.
By the way, I'm mostly blogging at camblogdia.blogspot.com now, and more can be found there. I'll be here only sporadically for the next two months, but will try to keep you updated! I promise!
