VIDEO: Dragon, the debranding
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week 3 of Semanal where we are posting one video a week for 2008.
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Thanks for documenting. Reminds me of reading Adbusters. Was it hard to get the tag off on the side? I find it’s getting harder to do stuff like this these days. Like they’re on to us.
I’m all for the debranding… for me, it’s about unplugging from the corporate matrix and also about clearing up visual mess. Just a cereal box alone can create a storm of graphic insanity on the breakfast table. I once visited a photographer’s home/studio and he said he took the labels off of everything or put the product in a clean container. At the time it seemed kind of crazy… but now I’m doing alot of that myself and it’s quite liberating.
I have mixed feelings about debranding.
Firstly, it seems so anti-corporation that I’m uncomfortable with it. I don’t know who AirWalk are, but I wouldn’t really wish them harm. Any action done with spite is anti-productive.
Then again, I gave them money for shoes. I shouldn’t have to also advertise the company for the life of the shoes.
But still, if I debrand them sloppily, my shiny new shoes suddenly look like crap. I want my new shoes to look good for a while. Sometimes the branding of the shoe is so entrenched that to remove it would irrevocably damage the shoe.
Yet again, by debranding my clothing, it becomes intrinsically MINE. No one else has shoes or shirts or whatever like this because I CHANGED them. This has a certain power to it that is stronger than any corporate branding can achieve. I’ve been doing this with my shirts:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19428171@N00/2174776855/
This is a really complicated subject and I don’t know how I feel about this.
I don’t debrand my clothes out of spite. It’s simply why wear names on my clothes that mean nothing to me. I become like a clown with names on my shirt, pants, shoes, hat, car. If I buy something, why do I need to overtly advertise for a company? If I like something, I’ll tell you how much I like it.
I feel that obnoxious, forced branding is disrespectful to the buyer. If I’m paying a premium because of the imaginary value of a brand name, well, that’s another story. That’s a consumer choice that I’ve never understood.
Jow, its actually really easy to debrand. If something has a brand so embedded in its structure that I can’t take it off with a knife, I think twice about purchasing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy is a great movie to watch to get a good insight to our brand obsessed culture. Let’s just be smarter.
Jay, for reasons similar to those you gave, I inspect stuff similarly, pre-purchase. I’ve also turned branded bags inside out (when I’ve needed them because I didn’t have a backpack with me).
You’ve inspired me to poke around my hard drive for photos of t-shirts I made and sold for a sociology class years ago (link below). One of my favorite memories from the project: my roommate digging the idea, putting on the [insert advertising here] t-shirt, then later slipping a Gap hoodie over it — and realizing the irony.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thestatusjoe/sets/72157603769939134/detail/
what is the writing you kept on the back of the shoe? isn’t that Air Walk in another language?
No longer BRAND new. This is a lesson. My HI-TEC boots have HI-TEC stamped four times on each boot. That’s eight HI-TEC emblems upon my tootsies. Oh dear. They’re so cleverly interwoven that if I chose to cut them off they’d cease to be boots and look remarkably like road kill. Or is that how my feet always look?! Oh god, pass me the blade…
yeah, they did sew in some asian script into the heel, not sure what it means. it blends in so less obvious. more ornamental i guess.
I completely know what you mean.
I always see great graphic tees or whatever, then I look a tad more closely and I see some shitty logo or brand name on it and I just put it right the fuck back. I have plenty of other clothing that displays names and faces, but it’s because I believe in the meaning of images.
Very nice. You get a unique look out of the deal too. No two the same.
The debranded shoes are cool, the shirt—priceless.
Hi Jay,
Nice video.
When I buy cars I make sure the dealer does not attach their emblem to the back to the car. I’ll let them add a license plate holder, but to affix an emblem to my car isn’t cool.
The other thing I don’t like is how my neighborhood is becoming a place for corporate advertising. Huge billboards all over…
I’m going to check out my clothes now…
–Steve
wow, I never thought of it that way. Nice idea.