No Logo

First published in 2000, No Logo is Naomi Klein’s classic examination of globalization and its discontents at the close of the 20th century. What started as a journalistic “hunch” about growing anticorporate sentiment on university campuses evolved into a full-scale exposé of the subterranean social and economic system lurking behind our logo-driven consumption.

The stated hypothesis of the book is that “as more people discover the brand-name secrets of the global logo web, their outrage will fuel the next big political movement, a vast wave of opposition squarely targeting transnational corporations, particularly those with very high name-brand recognition” (xx). No Logo unfolds this hypothesis in four major parts: “No Space,” “No Choice,” “No Jobs,” and “No Logo.” Taken together, these investigations are meant to unveil the interlocking cultural, commercial, and economic conditions that have given rise to a new form of activism for the 21st century.

“No Space” examines the colonization of culture and education by corporate advertising and messaging. According to Klein, this colonization follows from a key shift in business strategy and marketing, which began in the 1980s but truly accelerated in the early 1990s. In place of their past role as mere representations of their products, corporate logos and branding expanded to encompass a vast array of social and cultural meanings, from art and music to personal wellness and lifestyle commitments. This shift eroded the conceptual limitations on advertising that applied to older brands. While Campbell’s sells actual cans of soup, Nike sells the ideas of sports, endurance, fitness, and competition through a complex of marketing techniques that associate these notions with its products. As a result, corporate marketing was been able to permeate previously uncommercialized domains. Everything from concerts and campus bathroom stalls to the façades of entire neighborhoods became potentially brandable, with the result that non-corporate space greatly diminished.     

“No Choice” looks at the consequences of this brand omnipotence for consumers. The rapid expansion of multinational chains like Walmart and Starbucks eviscerated smaller, local competition throughout the globe. The result has been a clear loss in choice for the average individual: the same set of monolithic brands follows us wherever we go, from small town USA to Paris and Shanghai. Major corporations, however, have not been content to erect as many retail locations as possible. As Klein argues, the proliferation of branded experiences, from theme parks to vacation packages (e.g., Disney), have squashed the supposed diversity of options within the free market.

“No Jobs” turns to the key economic mechanisms of recent corporate expansion. After busting unions and shuttering factories at home, North American and European conglomerates moved most production overseas to cheap, often unregulated labor markets in Asia and Latin America. By divesting themselves of the encumbrances of manufacturing, companies were able to focus resources on branding and marketing, all the while reaping huge profits from minimal production costs. For Klein, the result has been universally negative for most people: sweatshop factory conditions have been imposed on the developing world, while the job market in the West is increasingly dominated by precarious, part-time, non-unionized labor.      

Finally, “No Logo” provides an overview of a variety of activist responses to the ascent of multinational brands. Klein considers several different oppositional practices, from adbusting “culture jammers” and prankster hackers to the reclamation of public space through street parties and profit-cutting boycott campaigns. These diverse manifestations of a common anticorporate attitude indicate a renewed willingness to directly confront corporate power. Though far from uncritical of some of these approaches, Klein ultimately argues that the motley generation of young activists and organizers emerging around the globe is sowing the seeds of a new international political movement.