In 1997 Tom Peters, in an early call to personal branding wrote, “You’re every bit as much a brand as Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop.” Lately, I have been thinking a lot about branding, its current collusion with the term identity, and how the internet has facilitated the current ubiquitousness of branding. The role the internet has played in integrating the logic of branding not only into our culture, but into the very construction of our subjectivities. In the meantime, I’d like to remind readers of what the core of branding actually is. It’s not a concise narrative you tell about yourself, a product or a service. It’s not building a reputation. These are superficial qualities of branding. These are behaviours that have existed long before the idea of branding. No, the defining characteristic of branding is the actions one takes in representing oneself or others as a recognizable commodity. Branding may speak the language of icons, mythologies, memories, experiences, emotions, etc. but ultimately, it is about the violent act of commodification. And if you ever forget what branding is really about, I would suggest you remember the etymology of the word, which shares the same root for the word burn.

This calf is now brand new. Are you?

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post scriptum: curious readers can read my review of the Branding AIDS Conference which touches on related issues.