Benjamin Barber on Brandscaping

Annotated Bibliography Barber, Benjamin R. Con$umed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2007. The connection between brand identity is made with consumer identity. A person’s lifestyle is reflected in the brands that are worn, eaten, used etc. It is a vicious cycle that has no beginning and no end. We as a society, obsessed with consumption and brands, don’t really know where our identity begins and ends or know who we are without the connection to a brand (169). The concept of “brandscaping” will also be included in making the comparison to Untied Colors of Benneton. This new economy is not about producing a product anymore but creating a brand (170). What can be understood is that the connection that people have with a brand is emotional. Corporations are counting on it and invest time and money into creating a brand that resonates with people. Somewhere along the way, corporations have switched from producing products to producing an idea and an identity. What I find to be the most problematic is that the power society has given to these corporations still has not made or not devoted themselves to working toward change. Benjamin Barber is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. He is a political theorist and “brings an abiding concern for democracy and citizenship to issues of politics, culture and education in America and abroad” (Benjamin R. Barber)