Walking Billboards

The designer label has taken on almost mythical qualities for some. Expensive clothing flies off the racks in stores all over the Western world, even if some of it doesn’t look that great. Why? Because of the label. Several companies have built up a reputation and a corporate awareness without a majority of people even having used the product, and the reason for this is corporate branding.

Almost a decade ago Naomi Klein wrote the seminal anti-globalization text No Logo, and almost instantly people were finding a way to wear the title of the book, printed as it was on the cover, somewhere on their clothes. Branding is everywhere. Even anti-corporate movements are seeing their insignia hijacked and worn as a fashion symbol. Whether or not the irony occurs to the people wearing it, this is not an uncommon occurrence.

Nowhere is this obsession with branding more prominent than in the growing craze of Corporate Logo Tattoos. Also referred to as Literal Corporate Branding, this pursuit is becoming almost terrifyingly popular. For some, it’s a very real case of them not being able to afford the actual product, but wanting the logo so badly that they’ll get it tattooed onto their skin.

If you name a major global corporation, the chances are you could do a Google search and see a picture of someone who has branded their body with that corporation’s logo. And yes, that includes Google. Some people are doing it for advertising bucks, but some are doing it just because they like the logo. It may seem mystifying but it’s growing in popularity. It does make you wonder, though, what would happen if the companies concerned sue for breach of copyright.