Naomi Klein, No Logo Review

Overall Rating

Soooooo much information...

May date because this field is moving so fast...

Ostensibly Naomi Klein's No Logo is a book about the history of Marketing, so how has it become one of the anti-Globalisation movements bibles?

No Logo takes us on a tour of the world - it begins by considering how we have all become obsessed with labels and logos, from the ghettos of New York to the catwalks of Milan. It examines how and why corporations have done this, both to the individual and to society at large: starting with the MacDonalds outlets in American schools which have replaced more conventional "unbranded" lunch provision. In poor areas of the US baseball courts were provided for free by big Corporations, but of course designed in their logo colours.

Is there anywhere in the modern world where you can walk down a street and not see advertising or where the airwaves are free from selling? Branding is no longer just about products, Puff Daddy, Michael Jordan and Posh Spice all are brands that sell in their own right so cross-branding is now where the big bucks are. In 1999 Nike executives predicted that their "competition in the future [will] be Disney, not Reebok."

Klein argues that as the brand is now all-important then the product becomes more flexible for the "brand" corporation. They are less inclined to manufacture it themselves than ever before because it is no longer "core business" - only the brand is core. If it's not core business it gets outsourced: simple.

Our world tour now takes a different turn and walks us through the sweatshops of Vietnam and Sri Lanka, of Mexico and China, and of Indonesia and the Philippines. The author has obviously travelled widely and brings a personal view of the chronic conditions in the factories, of the bonded labour, the child abuse and even humiliating practices such as the monthly sanitary-pad checks in some Mexican maquiladoras, to prove if the women are menstruating.

Oh yes, and Klein names names - we hear which trainers are made in which factories and how far below the cost of living the workers who make them are paid.

Finally Klein argues that as a result of this outsourcing, which cannot fuel the local economies of the Third World, fewer jobs are available in the home countries of the corporations.

So that is the logical theory played out over the course of the entire book but to get there you will find something just plain mad at every turn, that will stick in you mind - like the street dedicated to Barbie, or the big Corporations crazy ways of squeezing 0.0001% more work out of some poor worker. There are things that you will find yourself quoting in the pub about the "anarchists" who are fighting back in organised or individual ways, and finally there are heart-breaking stories of abuse that will stay with you for a long time.




Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2000, Klein's No Logo took her four years to write and I can see why. The book if packed tight with facts and figures to substantiate her claims. Her writing is clear and often evocative and personal but she never falls into preaching at the reader.

The full discussion takes the whole book to work through so you would not get the full impact of her theory if you attempted to "pick" at this book. However, open it at any page and you will see some startling and surprising revelations that may well send you reeling.

For those who have never really questioned this subject this book is a useful eye-opener. More all-encompassing than Fast Food Nation, more detailed and theoretic than Michael Moore: in my opinion this is probably not a bible but it is very engaging and a thoroughly thought-provoking read.

If you only buy one title that broadly fits into the "Anti-Globalisation" section then make sure it is No Logo.