Mcdonlds`

We are all branded ourselves to a certain degree, we announce ourselves through the clothes we wear, the products we buy and the car we drive, but why? The aim of this essay is to discuss how branding effects us a consumer society, what makes us remember particular brands and what moral issues are raised by the over use of brands.

A brand was originally a mark on a product to identify who made it or owned it (cattle were branded so others knew who they belonged to if they got lost or stolen). An older definition of a brand is: -

“(a brand name is) a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these, which is intended to identify the goods or services of one group of sellers and differentiate them from those of competitors”

The branding of a product has to mean so much more within the society in which we live today. It’s not so much about the product but the image it portrays. Richard Koch defines a brand in modern day society as: -

“A visual design and/or name that is given to a product or service by an organization in order to differentiate it from competing products and which assures consumers th

“the higher the viewing for particular adverts, the greater the children\'s requests for those products”

Of course branding does not always offer positive thoughts and emotions to encourage us to buy products, the brand may appeal to our consciences, for example, buying recycled toilet paper will help the environment, by not buying it you are damaging the worlds natural resources, not only for you but your children and their children in years to come. If a product promises to reduce pollution in the atmosphere or reduce environmental decay then moral issues kick in, by buying these products, we feel we are helping to improve the world.

Essentially branding is used to sell a product, however there are designers who use existing brand images, easily recognisable to support other issues such as bulimia and anorexia. This advertisement by at a first glimpse looks like a poster for the well know perfume ‘Obsession’ by Calvin Klein, however on closer reading of the image you see a woman leaning towards a toilet, the headline ‘Obsession’ is referring towards the obsessive nature of bulimia, rather than the perfume. By using easily recognised imagery it takes something people know (the name of the product and stylish layout) so they will take notice and alert the viewer to a serious issue, something the person wasn’t thinking about when they first see the advert. The designers of the series of adverts wanted to target Calvin Klein because of the brand image it portrayed to millions of adolescents, the company used women who were extremely thin and anorexic looking (Kate Moss (pictured top left)or Christy Turlington (pictured bottom left) note the similarity of pose in top picture and ad busters advert, the models facing slightly away from the camera bare backed and protruding backbone. They were also targeted because of the use of nudity, Kate Moss has a very child like figure, the series of adverts that she posed semi naked in were compared to that of child pornography. Ad busters wanted to highlight the fact that Calvin Klein was selling this ‘perfect body’ image along with the product, many people don’t conform to these images and self obsession becomes an issue.

Some topics in this essay:
Calvin Klein, Richard Koch, Unfortunately McDonalds, Cherry Coke, Ronald McDonald, Christian Cross”, , Gold Blend, Coca Colas, Gucci Prada, calvin klein, coca cola, ad busters, children mcdonald’s, brand image, trust believe, liz taylor, change brand, target children, golden arches,