Greetings. Further to my "Helen and Daves' valiant odyssey", I though McLibel people might like to read
Naomi Klein's essay in the NEWS STATESMAN of 24th January on "how Nike, Gap, McDonald's and their like
have turned the whole world into a marketing opportunity." Here are the first couple of paragraphs.
The whole article can be found at http://www.consider.net/library.php3?Action=Record&searchStart=1&searchRange=10&searchWriter=&searchContent=tyranny+of+brands&searchSection=&searchDayFrom=&searchMonthFrom=&searchYearFrom=&searchDayTo=&searchMonthTo=&searchYearTo=&URN=200001240022
What are we to make of the extraordinary
scenes in Seattle that brought the 20th
century to a close? A New York Times
reporter observed that this vibrant mass
movement opposed to unregulated
globalisation had materialised "seemingly
overnight". On television, the reliable
experts who explain everything couldn't
sort out whether the protesters were
right-wing nationalists or Marxist globalists.
Even the American left seemed surprised
to learn that, contrary to previous reports,
it did, in fact, still exist.
Despite the seemingly unconnected
causes that converged in Seattle that
week, there was a common target: the
multinational corporation in general and
McDonald's, The Gap, Microsoft and
Starbucks in particular. And what has given
the movement against them a new energy
and a new urgency is a profound shift in
corporate priorities. That shift centres on
the idea of corporate branding and the
quest to build the most powerful brand
image. It will, I believe, be one of the issues
that shapes the first decade of the 21st
century.
Regards.
None.
