No Logo by Naomi Klein caught my eye when I was spending some time in the social studies section of a Borders book store. I love the section and this just popped out, and after reading the back of the book, I figured I would try it on for size.
The book at it’s very simplest is an overview on the marketing and logo design, culture and society. The author goes into a lot of different aspects of how we are sold products, how we are marketed to, and what companies are trying to do with everything that they try to pawn off on you. It reads like a college textbook at times, and I wanted to have study questions at the end of each chapter, but that is the books only major flaw.
A lot of the things that are said in this book, I already know. I like to think of myself as an informed consumer, so when the author tells the story of Nike or Marlboro and its pricing scheme’s, it seems redundant to me.
I learned most of what the book’s content in college during my many classes about e-commerce, marketing, and logo design. (I went to an Art School focusing on Interactive Media)
The overall tone of the book is that of an opinionated writer. Klein seems to step aside at times to allow you to decide whether or not you want to support the companies she speaks about, but when you make that decision she seems to slap your hands and point her fingers, taunting you to be more responsible about what you buy and who you listen to. I don’t know if I like that, but it was a nice touch, if you caught it.
The most interesting things in this book are not anything new, they are things that you already know, but reading them and thinking about them in the context of the bigger picture really makes you wonder why you tend to buy into the schemes of these companies that are solely after profit and nothing else.
Making villains out of corporations is easy, and Klein has written the handbook for an intelligent consumer to start questioning the choices they make when spending their money.
No Logo is definitely a recommended book, however, I felt as though I was just going through a review of what I already knew and what I already seem to think about whenever I am buying anything. Although, sometimes I would rather suppress my thoughts and just spend money, than to actually think about the implications of being a walking billboard for corporations that do not care one iota about me. No Logo by Naomi Klein is definitely a good, refreshing read, and you should read it on the sole purpose of not being ignorant about the world around you.
