Antibranding - Is It a Fad?

ANTIBRANDING - IS IT A FAD?

(An Executive Summary)

Advertising has come a long way starting with repetitive advertising and hard-core selling to tapping the psychology of the consumer to tickle the latent demand. The advent of television and later sub-urbanization increased the reach of products to consumers. By 1990's, techniques focusing on ironic-reflexive-brand persona, cultural epicenters, life world emplacement, and stealth branding tried to project brands as relevant and authentic cultural resources.

Antibranding is not a new concept. It has been existent over the past few decades. If branding is about building positive images around products, anti-branding is about dismantling these images and replacing them with negative ones. As brands are growing stronger and stronger, so are the antibranding movements and their consequent criticism.

With passage of time it was felt that marketers were controlling the information that is exchanged with the customers and the customers started battling to regain their lost social space. It was realized that corporates have started indulging in foul play by abandoning production, ubiquitous advertising (everywhere leaving no personal space sacred) and exploiting human and capital resources. But the talk about building a more democratic state and society that is more responsive to the "true desire" of ordinary people and not just the profit motive of production seemed hollow. For instance, in the case of the launch of "Blackspot sneaker", with its hand-drawn anti-logo and renegade billboards and TV ads, the anti brand campaign gained prominence in the global scenario. It revolutionized not just the footwear but also helped antibrand activists to foray into the domains of music, fast food, coffee shops and apparel. But the movement was not anti-branding in its true sense since there was no rejection of the logo. Besides, there wasn't even resistance to the idea of wearing badges.

The postmodern consumers perceive modern branding efforts to be inauthentic because they seem to ooze with the commercial intent of their sponsors. Antibrand movement now demands that, to be authentic, corporations must reveal their corporate bodies, warts and all, to public scrutiny besides embracing environmentally friendly practices, or investing in renewable energy sources