Kedar's Log, Stardate 2010

Ever since man discovered how products can be traded for money or other goods, he has been building this giant ecosystem of shopping and trading. Starting with simple necessities of life, people started using their skills to create products for everybody who either didn’t have the skills to make them or didn’t have the time or interest or the tools. Others ‘bought’ these goods and the world was happy.

Then came competition, when more than one person in town started making the same thing. I guess, that’s when the makers felt the need to inscribe their names on their creations – so that people can come back to them. Starting from such modest roots, we got what we call now – the consumer “Brands”!

In today’s consumerist society, people have access to a mind-boggling array of products created by an equally mind-boggling number of producers competing ferociously with each other. Modern times have changed our attitudes immensely. We live in a culture full of consumer lust for more products, fancier labels and larger than life product promotions.

We have so much of everything but still…

… it is just not enough to have a car these days – it needs to be either a BMW or a Mercedes or a Lexus or one of those Italian beauties to get an eyeball.. it’s not enough that you are wearing a suit – they will ask you if it is a Versace or Armani or Prada.. you got a handbag? – well, is it a Gucci or Coach or Michael Kors.. hey, what do you know, it’s not even enough to just have clothes on your body these days – are they designed by Tommy Hilfiger or Calvin Klein or Polo.. and even if you just want to wear some skimpy bare-all swimwear – which, by the way, may not even be worth $10 in actual material costs – you had better spent hundreds of dollars to get some designer swimwear like Speedo, CK, or D & G – if you want people to notice and talk about it!..

So you see, it is just not enough to have watches, perfumes, phones, cars, sunglasses, jeans, skirts, purses, jewelry, makeup, wallets, shoes, boxers, underwear (!).. they all have to have a prestigious label. That label has a price and that price is what decides your value in the society!

When I was a kid, we used to have a tiny bottle of perfume for the whole family. I don’t think it had any special name on it, my father must have bought it from some small shop. It smelled good and for it to smell good, it did not need a Calvin Klein or Hugo Boss or Chanel or Elizabeth Arden or Kross or Nina Richi on it. Back then, I never knew what brand my clothes were made of, or what shoes I was wearing or which backpack I was carrying. But I guess nowadays it is different..

I think Shakespeare was way off when he said “What’s in a name.. That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet”..!

I am not anti-brand.. I guess I am more anti-brandism! I buy branded merchandise too.. but I am not brand conscious! So if I want to buy a bed sheet or a comforter, I don’t go looking for Tommy Hilfiger or Laura Ashley or Calvin Klein or Martha Stuart – heck, for that matter, most of them have some of the most boring designs on the planet IMHO! I am usually in the market for a good product and not for a good brand..

These days it is prestigious to shop for the brands, or rather it is stupid and cheap to buy unbranded products..! People proudly declare their brand allegiance wherever they go, they go out of their way and wallets, to go buy branded merchandise.. so that they can show it off to their friends and family. I wonder sometimes whether it is us buying the branded goods or the other way around!

I use the word ‘brandishing’ for this very reason. People flash their branded merchandise to gain attention, to feel that momentary superiority, to show the world that they don’t settle for anything less, to feel that sense of being-a-cut-above-the-crowd, because someone in some advertisement told them that it takes a connoisseur to recognize and use their brand!

To me, if an unbranded $5 T-shirt looks better than a $75 branded one, I will take it, no matter what someone might say or how much money I have..