Hacking Hero Brand Essence
Hacking Hero Brand Essence
South African Revolution up for Sale -- how much will all this rage cost?
by David Robert Lewis
BACK in the days of yore, when men were still err.. men, and womyn as well as so-called blaks sweated under the hammer of capitalism, the revolution was safe underground. It avoided provocative statements on advertising billboards, and while slogans like Free Mandela and People's Power were considered cool, the only time these anti-establishment ideolects got used on posters was when the bands themselves paid for the printing and life was, as James Philips would have said, kak.
Entire events would get bust simply for suggesting a connection to the ANC, or UDF as it was then known. Musicians were banned outright, poets were imprisoned and talk was nervous and cheap. There was no need to consider advertising sponsorship or the creative stance of counter-culture collateral. South African Breweries simply stood by and watched, and Levi Strauss like so many international brands were absent because of sanctions -- so there was no brand essence to speak of Revolution.
The closest one could come to a free Castle was off the back of a burning truck, and if your pants were already on fire there was no bothering with jeans labels. Now, ten years after democracy, there is a frantic rush by advertisers to connect with grassroots protest movements, like the Treatment Action Campaign. How times have changed (got any spare change?).
Without wanting to undermine the considerable work done by Treatment Action Groupings and even the 46664 Mandela concerts, one is forced to pose the question -- are we not all cleaving our wounds afresh to a new form of evil -- dire manipulation by opportunists and propagandists who just want to make a quick buck to sell, in this instance, branded clothing? Is there anything intrinsically wrong, one might add with associating an HIV campaign with red-flag Levis?
Well, for one the would-be commie company is often accused of running sweatshops in the far east, nothing extraordinary for labour. But the real question is, are we selling out here or simply buying in?
Rage for the Revolution seems to contend that it is merely marketing a particular version of Freedom espoused by one of the most libertine labels of all time. A new form of brand essence that seems to suggest all things to all people as well as nothing in particular, thus placating both left and right with a denouement of everything one loves (and yet fails to love).
Dangerous thoughts these, because yes, I do love my Levis, and as a Jew from an immigrant background, I love the fact that Levi Strauss seems to well, desire my activist roots as a customer, even my old tackies worn down Adderley St before the collapse of the Apartheid Laager, are commodity fetishes up for grabs by eager executives.
Yet I fear all is not well as far as the SA Revolution (patent pending) is concerned.
Aside from the spectre of trademark capitalism branding my socialist butt and the sight of millions of bummies, (that's right - black, upwardly mobile, marxists) bopping to Karl Marx and Karen Zoid, I still have my doubts.
Counting the cost of Revolution (tm)
Is the price of our revolution, thousands of wasted lives, even more dead and buried, to be spent merely so that we can build a new form of perfume? Is this the reason we freed Madiba, so that he could look good in Jeans? Levis would like us to believe that they alone are capable of delivering up the revolution, but I'm afraid the real revolution is happening as we speak, not in our backyard but in small-town America, amongst the youth of the USA, and it is a revolution against Uncle Sam and his stealth missiles, lies and bribes.
The new cultural and political revolution is not simply because millions reject the notion of a one-size-fits all Logo Capitalism, but because of the failure of the party system, a failure that has resulted in the assumption of power by the Christian Far Right under a New World Order proclaimed by none other than George W Bush, son of George Bush snr, former head of the CIA.
What Levi-Strauss would like us to forget, is that the first Bush was almost impeached because of the Iran-Contra Scandal, and that his son, George "Dubya" Bush, could very well face a similar indightment because of Haliburton. Recent testimony in congress seems to suggest that not only did the President mislead the nation about an approaching attack against the United States by Al Quada Terrorists, but that he might also have participated in funding those selfsame terrorists!
And all because of the terrible urge to globalise, to deliver the final epic moment, an apocalyptic soap opera that far-right Republicans have been preaching all along -- not just an excuse to invade Iraq, but a correction of the Middle East and final take-over of the rest of the world via stealth.
As a young democracy, we are all in serious danger of losing our own essense, our patriotic sense of freedom as a country, in yet another denouement of Freedom that hinges upon branding the revolution on behalf of Levis or Nikes and even SAB-Miller, until death do us part. The question is should we allow this travesty to happen without raising so much as a fist?
Should we even be caught dead collaborating with a campaign that can't seem to distinguish between Freedom from War, and the Freedom to Wage War? Freedom from HIV and the right to get Tested? I challenge Levi-Strauss, the Treatment Action Campaign and those musicians involved in Rage for the Revolution to state clearly where they stand with regard to South Africa's own Democratic Revolution as well as World Peace, Universal Love and the simple practice of democracy.
Cape Town, March, 2005
[For Media Soup/Media Hackers Ball]
South African Revolution up for Sale -- how much will all this rage cost?
by David Robert Lewis
BACK in the days of yore, when men were still err.. men, and womyn as well as so-called blaks sweated under the hammer of capitalism, the revolution was safe underground. It avoided provocative statements on advertising billboards, and while slogans like Free Mandela and People's Power were considered cool, the only time these anti-establishment ideolects got used on posters was when the bands themselves paid for the printing and life was, as James Philips would have said, kak.
Entire events would get bust simply for suggesting a connection to the ANC, or UDF as it was then known. Musicians were banned outright, poets were imprisoned and talk was nervous and cheap. There was no need to consider advertising sponsorship or the creative stance of counter-culture collateral. South African Breweries simply stood by and watched, and Levi Strauss like so many international brands were absent because of sanctions -- so there was no brand essence to speak of Revolution.
The closest one could come to a free Castle was off the back of a burning truck, and if your pants were already on fire there was no bothering with jeans labels. Now, ten years after democracy, there is a frantic rush by advertisers to connect with grassroots protest movements, like the Treatment Action Campaign. How times have changed (got any spare change?).
Without wanting to undermine the considerable work done by Treatment Action Groupings and even the 46664 Mandela concerts, one is forced to pose the question -- are we not all cleaving our wounds afresh to a new form of evil -- dire manipulation by opportunists and propagandists who just want to make a quick buck to sell, in this instance, branded clothing? Is there anything intrinsically wrong, one might add with associating an HIV campaign with red-flag Levis?
Well, for one the would-be commie company is often accused of running sweatshops in the far east, nothing extraordinary for labour. But the real question is, are we selling out here or simply buying in?
Rage for the Revolution seems to contend that it is merely marketing a particular version of Freedom espoused by one of the most libertine labels of all time. A new form of brand essence that seems to suggest all things to all people as well as nothing in particular, thus placating both left and right with a denouement of everything one loves (and yet fails to love).
Dangerous thoughts these, because yes, I do love my Levis, and as a Jew from an immigrant background, I love the fact that Levi Strauss seems to well, desire my activist roots as a customer, even my old tackies worn down Adderley St before the collapse of the Apartheid Laager, are commodity fetishes up for grabs by eager executives.
Yet I fear all is not well as far as the SA Revolution (patent pending) is concerned.
Aside from the spectre of trademark capitalism branding my socialist butt and the sight of millions of bummies, (that's right - black, upwardly mobile, marxists) bopping to Karl Marx and Karen Zoid, I still have my doubts.
Counting the cost of Revolution (tm)
Is the price of our revolution, thousands of wasted lives, even more dead and buried, to be spent merely so that we can build a new form of perfume? Is this the reason we freed Madiba, so that he could look good in Jeans? Levis would like us to believe that they alone are capable of delivering up the revolution, but I'm afraid the real revolution is happening as we speak, not in our backyard but in small-town America, amongst the youth of the USA, and it is a revolution against Uncle Sam and his stealth missiles, lies and bribes.
The new cultural and political revolution is not simply because millions reject the notion of a one-size-fits all Logo Capitalism, but because of the failure of the party system, a failure that has resulted in the assumption of power by the Christian Far Right under a New World Order proclaimed by none other than George W Bush, son of George Bush snr, former head of the CIA.
What Levi-Strauss would like us to forget, is that the first Bush was almost impeached because of the Iran-Contra Scandal, and that his son, George "Dubya" Bush, could very well face a similar indightment because of Haliburton. Recent testimony in congress seems to suggest that not only did the President mislead the nation about an approaching attack against the United States by Al Quada Terrorists, but that he might also have participated in funding those selfsame terrorists!
And all because of the terrible urge to globalise, to deliver the final epic moment, an apocalyptic soap opera that far-right Republicans have been preaching all along -- not just an excuse to invade Iraq, but a correction of the Middle East and final take-over of the rest of the world via stealth.
As a young democracy, we are all in serious danger of losing our own essense, our patriotic sense of freedom as a country, in yet another denouement of Freedom that hinges upon branding the revolution on behalf of Levis or Nikes and even SAB-Miller, until death do us part. The question is should we allow this travesty to happen without raising so much as a fist?
Should we even be caught dead collaborating with a campaign that can't seem to distinguish between Freedom from War, and the Freedom to Wage War? Freedom from HIV and the right to get Tested? I challenge Levi-Strauss, the Treatment Action Campaign and those musicians involved in Rage for the Revolution to state clearly where they stand with regard to South Africa's own Democratic Revolution as well as World Peace, Universal Love and the simple practice of democracy.
Cape Town, March, 2005
[For Media Soup/Media Hackers Ball]
posted by ethnopunk @ 3:48 AM
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