As I found quotations from this book and plenty references thereto in many articles and works of my favourite writers, my expectations could be hardly higher when I opened it and started to read it. Couple of hundred pages later I felt little bit misled by another advertising campaign, the machinery so heavily criticised by Ms. Klein. While attacking the product propaganda and the dictate of the marketing departments over the content and product producers, she learned some tricks. The cover of the book is just cute (you all know this word itself and cute things sell well in shopping malls), then the fact that she shortened her name (it just looks better, has completely different usage ratio in electronic media and the magic of Ronald Reagan name - surname consonance applies, right?) and finally maybe sometimes unscrupulous parasitism on McDonald trademark (and easy-picking of the same target, with weak, very weak justification for pointing the finger on this company too often) in visual material the book features.
So, the packaging is great and all subliminal messages are delivered to the customer on a tested silver of plate, it works perfectly, but then the content is unfortunately of poor quality. No Logo is like any other logo, just the flashy life style symbol with the very little behind it. First, Ms. Klein did very poor research. We learn she was on one or two study tours and she lives her life in capitalism which (probably) gives her enough competence in the matter, so no need for time-consuming collection of facts and figures with higher information value. Second, her book just gives impression she keeps describing two or three anti-McDonald campaigns and anti-consumerism fight highlights and that is all - I felt like she recycles herself and her ideas in every 50 pages, which itself is quite typical for modern marketing and post-modern art, by the way. Third, she is discovering the charted parts of the globe and gives very few hints how to change the world and the way it works. I know we shall think and do it for ourselves, but it would be nice to see that she can see some light at the end of a tunnel after all that paper used for printing of her opus anti-magnum.
To sum it up, this book is sui generis light non-fiction for the environment and anti-global fighters travelling from Berlin to Genova for another street fight against police = G8 and the rich of the world. By the time they will reach the spot, they will be done with the book and equipped with new intellectual ammo. In no need to re-read it, they throw the book into the dustbin to free their hands to carry stones for trashing the Benetton shop-windows there.
To sum it up for good, this book is unfortunately not a good pick for those who think twice (not globally) before acting locally. Unfortunately...
As I found quotations from this book and plenty references thereto in many articles and works of my favourite writers, my expectations could be hardly higher when I opened it and started to read it. Couple of hundred pages later I felt little bit misled by another advertising campaign, the machinery so heavily criticised by Ms. Klein. While attacking the product propaganda and the dictate of the marketing departments over the content and product producers, she learned some tricks. The cover of the book is just cute (you all know this word itself and cute things sell well in shopping malls), then the fact that she shortened her name (it just looks better, has completely different usage ratio in electronic media and the magic of Ronald Reagan name - surname consonance applies, right? ) and finally maybe sometimes unscrupulous parasitism on McDonald trademark (and easy-picking of the same target, with weak, very weak justification for pointing the finger on this company too often) in visual material the book features. So, the packaging is great and all subliminal messages are delivered to the customer on a tested silver of plate, it works perfectly, but then the content is unfortunately of poor quality. No Logo is like any other logo, just the flashy life style symbol with the very little behind it. First, Ms. Klein did very poor research. We learn she was on one or two study tours and she lives her life in capitalism which (probably) gives her enough competence in the matter, so no need for time-consuming collection of facts and figures with higher information value. Second, her book just gives impression she keeps describing two or three anti-McDonald campaigns and anti-consumerism fight highlights and that is all - I felt like she recycles herself and her ideas in every 50 pages, which itself is quite typical for modern marketing and post-modern art, by the way. Third, she is discovering the charted parts of the globe and gives very few hints how to change the world and the way it works. I know we shall think and do it for ourselves, but it would be nice to see that she can see some light at the end of a tunnel after all that paper used for printing of her opus anti-magnum. To sum it up, this book is sui generis light non-fiction for the environment and anti-global fighters travelling from Berlin to Genova for another street fight against police = G8 and the rich of the world. By the time they will reach the spot, they will be done with the book and equipped with new intellectual ammo. In no need to re-read it, they throw the book into the dustbin to free their hands to carry stones for trashing the Benetton shop-windows there. To sum it up for good, this book is unfortunately not a good pick for those who think twice (not globally) before acting locally. Unfortunately...