Men and Branding: A Short Take

Decades ago, branding was simple and straightforward. Street shop owners were never concerned of how their store signs would look but rather fretful of its readability. Their only objective was to have a readable signboard so consumers would distinguish them from other vendors. Every industry during that time revolved around small localities and there was no need for overly advertising their trade. Now that the good old days of simplicity are gone and progress and industrialization have made their way in over the past decades, branding embellished the once simple theme of promotion. Everyone today needs branding to be different, unique, and outstanding.



Accept it or not, our lives are intertwined with brands. This world is filled with well-crafted logos, perfectly contrasted colors, alluringly shaped packaging, and annoyingly catchy repetitive taglines. And it’s all up to us to consider ourselves as victims or beneficiaries.



The Logorama effect



The lampoon involved in Logorama shows how humans and brands have inadvertently lived together in both harmony and discordance. Though the beautifully-made French short film is vague in meaning (just like any other shorts out there), it candidly portrays how brands equalize to humans, or on the other hand, higher than humans, especially in the character of the protagonist Michelin Man and antagonist Ronald McDonald.



The 16-minute satire is an exemplary anthropomorphism of brands in our current lives. Alaux, de Crécy and Houplain start the flick with grandeur of mundane, laid-back county life that is later followed by earthquake-leading crime initiated by the lunatic Ronald McDonald. The plot employs an imaginary ellipse when the antagonist Ronald first appeared onscreen as a sought after criminal without elucidation. The Michelin police officers’ hunt for the antagonist paves way to an action-packed fast-food heist, kidnapping incident, and to an unexplained earthquake that prevents the Michelin sniper from bringing the criminal down. The subsequent earthquake incident highlights the climax and shows an incessant metaphorical destruction of still and humanized logos.



Whether the cinematic fall and destruction of logos is an allegory or a direct message, it gives in to a casual truth that the human life is subjugated by brands and branding. The French filmmakers feverish take on the over-marketed world highlights the exaggeration of brand’s existence in this world, a portrayal showing that no element in this world has not been adorned or touched by it; that even the depths of the earth has a North Face logo, butterflies are owned by Microsoft, and a global melt down can be as eerie as the Xbox logo. The ending is paradoxical and ironic. Esso girl and Big Boy lay languidly on the prairie of ruins, while the camera zooms out and shows that even the galaxies and the universe outside the puny Logorama world is dominated by manmade logos.



The finale is absurd in meaning, yet it would be gaudier to think if this suggests that life can be more or equally beautiful without this overstated logo and branding existence.



Branding’s significance



Now that brands are literally part of our lives, its significance is in question. Would it matter if we wake up one day without these brand names glued on packaging? What would it be like to roam around the local boulevard without signs hanging on store walls? What if all products are chastised to create identity for themselves? What if everything is standardized so marketing would be a fair game?



Brands dictate our preferences. Gone are the days when products submit to us. They now dictate our lives, our tastes, and what is best for us. Whether we admit it or not, throwing brands out of our lives is like depriving ourselves of choosing. We lose our preference when brands are gone. With products and services lacking its identity, we enter the market blindfolded, as if choosing a single bathroom item is the most arduous task in this world.





Joseph writes about SEO, Blogging, and Web Development. He works for Endless Rise provides Private Label SEO Reseller Services to many companies with their large in house staff. Closely managed and audited SEO best practices gives resellers an advantage. Offering consultive support and research makes Endless Rise a leader in their industry. No cost or obligation to find out how you can sell SEO services without doing all the work yourself.