Restoring a balance of power with brands

Everywhere I go, people are talking about brands.

Brands have become our new social currency, our new belief system.

We find it impossible to divorce brand from the object or service (or person) itself; everything has become branded.

We depend on brands to discover who we are, project our identity, belong and navigate through modern life.

Every day, we admit and discard brands from our carefully-tended brand constellation, something as unique at any given moment as our own DNA.

And as we become more invested in this system, brands become more powerful, they hold more sway in our lives.

Is this good or bad?

To the extent that we blindly endorse brands, without much consideration except look’n feel, I believe we’re becoming too brand-dependent, at a steep cost to society.

For those of us that know better, this is irresponsible behavior.

However if we commit to making more informed, critical brand choices, holding brands to higher standards, then I think it’s possible for a constructive brand belief system to emerge.

But boy we’re going to need help getting there.

What can drive a greater sense of civic responsibility across America?

For this is what it’s going to take to restore a balance of power with brands, to claw back some smarts, some dignity for all.

Federal government? Hah! Activism? DIYism? Culture? Entrepreneurship? Trail-blazing city governments like Portland? Oprah? Youtube?

I wish we had the answer… it’s out there somewhere.

Somehow, we’ve gotta raise the collective consciousness to help people place more value on themselves, their friends and their communities, and less on brands just for brands’ sake.