The Nike Effect

Whenever we originally had our discussion about branding and how people become so used to seeing a brand’s logo and hearing the message the corporation puts out as a means to attract consumers I was convinced that females would be the easy target, the ones who would fall prey to big business more frequently and harder than their male counterparts. This idea may sound especially odd coming from a female, but I had reasons for jumping to my conclusion.
The picture of the typical female, myself included, is someone who cares what others think of her, someone who is always working to present the best version of herself possible, someone who aims to fit in and do what the masses are doing and wearing, someone who is aware of the judgment that others can aim in your direction if you do not follow the status quo. And yes, this is wickedly stereotypical and I am aware of that. But still I couldn’t help but compare how females worry so much about appearance to branding because I thought that the more we care about our appearances the more we are susceptible to branding and the message corporations send out saying that we must use their product if we want to be the same as everyone else, as good as everyone else, as popular, as whatever as everyone else.
So while I thought originally that females would be the ones who paid the most attention to brands and who was using which brands, I have changed my tune recently.

Looking around our campus it has come to my attention just how much guys are also falling prey to branding. Especially branding by Nike. As we talked about in class, Nike is excellent at selling the lifestyle behind the product and not necessarily the product itself. And I must say that after following one too many guy around campus and being inundated by a Nike backpack, Nike hoodie over a Nike shirt, Nike shorts, Nike socks, and even Nike shoes I am more than disgusted with how excellent Nike is at getting their message across and getting people to buy into it. If I was previously horrified by how much of what we choose to buy and wear and consume really is not because of our own decisions but instead are because of the messages corporations have exposed us to, that has only escalated lately. It has escalated yes, but I also have become much more impressed with corporations like Nike being so good at the key idea of branding: “find your message, trademark it, repeat it over and over again”. So while I wish branding was not so prevalent, I am interested in the process and how intense it is despite the fact that we so often think we are being original in our choices.