Branding Today

I see a lot of topics on the internet about how branding effects the every day life of people. It is seen everywhere, everyone grows up with it, people become walking billboards because they are sporting their favorite brands, and some even get tattoos of a brand. I always end up watching documentaries and hearing about these problems in the various sociology classes I have taken. They always state how it clutters towns and causes narrow minded purchasing. I personally think there really is no major problem with this whole brand phenomenon.

I see these brands as just a means of communication and advertisement. I mean yeah, there are everywhere and it is overwhelming at times, but I personally don't think there is some major crisis in the media, market, or whatever with the brands being over advertised. It does effect people in the way they decide what to buy but it gives people some sort of attachment to the brand itself. For example, I grew up playing video games; one of my favorite games being Sonic the Hedgehog. Now this game was advertised a lot in magazines and things like that back then, so it was a popular game. I played every single one that came out, I liked it so much when I was little that I decided one day I wanted to be fast like Sonic. I would run everywhere, I started doing track when I got old enough, I even have a tattoo of Sonic on my wrist because I kind of view him as the reasoning I sought after track for so long. Granted throughout my track career I didn't keep this in mind but the character and brand of Sonic itself had meaning attached to it for me.

People will gravitate to what they want and become attached  to what they want. The massive brand advertising does effect those decisions because it blurs our vision of other products but I personally don't think it causes distress in people's lives like these documentaries and articles make them out to be. People can always go look for other things other than the big name brands, which does happen.