[rm_-rf_slash]

Perhaps this is my inner Ultra-American speaking, but I think it's perfectly fine for people to feel aligned, even owned, by their brands.

Hell, look around you. How many items do you see that were NOT made by a corporation?

The brands I choose are a reflection of my personality. I shop at Wegmans instead of having groceries delivered because I like their quality and I can always run into people I know. I buy Apple products because they appear more integrated and polished than other consumer tech, and that is an important aspect of my personality. I'm not a shill (ok, I did work for Apple a few years ago), but rather I am so content with the brands I choose that I enjoy telling others about them.

[jacquesm]

> Perhaps this is my inner Ultra-American speaking, but I think it's perfectly fine for people to feel aligned, even owned, by their brands.

I strongly disagree with that. Brands should not 'own people', brands should be at best an indicator of what you can expect from a product quality or service wise.

And what's being American (Ultra-American??) got to do with it?

> Hell, look around you. How many items do you see that were NOT made by a corporation?

That does not have anything to do with it. Having corporations produce goods is fine, having them try to hack our brains is not.

> The brands I choose are a reflection of my personality.

Please read 'The Space Merchants', one of my favorite books which is a frontal assault on that one sentence.

[tinco]

An Ultra-American is so capitalist that they prefer plutocracy over democracy. It's some sort of consequence of the cold war I'd guess.

I've not read 'The Space Merchants' but I wonder how it assaults that sentence as I believe it is generally true. That's not to say that your chosen brands are a full representation of your personality, but they certainly cover a lot of it.

I shop at Albert Heijn, even though there's an Aldi, Lidle and Jumbo at roughly the same distance from my house. I'm sure that will tell you all sorts of things about my personality. Not that all people who go there are the same, but it'll still tell you something about me. Same goes for that my workstation runs Linux, and my laptop is a Mac (with dual boot linux).

I don't think now you know exactly what kind of person I am, but they are partial reflections of my personality. What I tolerate, and what I don't. What I prefer and what I disdain.

[jacquesm]

> I've not read 'The Space Merchants' but I wonder how it assaults that sentence as I believe it is generally true.

I'm definitely not saying that it is not true, I'm saying that it should not be true and that 'The Space Merchants' is an excellent book around the theme of why that should not be true and how the machinery behind the curtain works.

We're not exactly unable to influence how we think and act (within limits). Corporate brands are a fairly recent invention, there is no need to give them the amount of head-space that they are taking up.