Great book, but really weird to read now, in the era of social media targeted ads, influencer #sponcon and the behemoths of amazon, shein, etc. More relevant than ever, I guess!

I remember reading this book over a decade ago and some of its argument still ring true. Depressing but makes for a great book.

God, this was such a fantastic book. I'm sure you've heard of it - it's about sweatshop labour, globalisation, branding, the way in which companies produce and how that's changed over the years.

I picked this up because it was on the reading list in the back of Scarlett Thomas's PopCo, and I can see why - the sort of realisations that Alice in PopCo has about branding are all in here, as are the seeds of the movements against branding.

This is a depressing book, of course. I'm certain that so many of the products I own are produced in sweatshops, and that I'm influenced by branding in all sorts of ways. I can see why this encourages so many peope to become activists - because it's affecting your life in such an everyday way. Even if I don't go out and start altering advertising, I think I'll still think about it in a different way in the future, and try and source products that aren't produced by global brands utilising sweatshop labour.

Great introduction to the mechanisms of branding. Last couple of chapters are outdated at this point, and if one is familiar with the topic in some capacity, it's very redundant. Klein's discussion on the corruption of campus identity politics remains as pertinent and demoralizing as ever, and the history of brands selling experiences rather than products is also relevant. A good read overall. I think I would have adored it if I read it in the early 90s or 2000s.

Somewhat outdated, but an interesting historical artifact nonetheless.