No Logo is not meant to be read as a literal slogan… or a post-logo logo. Rather, it is an attempt to capture an anticorporate attitude I see emerging among many young activists. This book is hinged on a simple hypothesis: that as more people discover the brand-name secrets of the global logo web, their outrage will fuel the next big political movement, a vast wave of opposition squarely targeting transnational corporations, particularly those with very high name-brand recognition. - Naomi Klein (Introduction to No Logo, xviii).

Normally, when reading a book, it is practically impossible to interpret the author's intentions beyond what one thinks they might have been. Klein however makes no bones about informing her reader about her exact intentions for the book as a whole and about each of the four sections that it is divided into. Before I move into an overview of the book, I would note that No Logo is not a typical read. Anyone who wants to take a good book along to read in front of a fireplace while staying at a cabin, I suggest Moby Dick, Ender's Game, The Mists of Avalon… basically anything except No Logo. Klein identifies with precision the elements of our culture that we, as a society, generally ignore or try not to think about - the effect of which (as we have seen in class) can lead one into a serious state of guilt and depression. Guilt and depression are not Klein's intent for No Logo (although she does indeed want to arrest her readers' attention); while she identifies the evils of transnational corporations and the consumption of public and private space by popular culture and brands, she also (and more importantly) draws our attention to the political movement that is beginning to counteract those evils.

Klein wrote No Logo to capture an attitude that exists in only a small portion of our population. While the rest of us wear the spectacles of mediated culture, activists like Helen Steele, Dave Morris, Ken and Ownes Wiwa, Rodriguez de Gerada and thousands more are fighting, sometimes with their very lives, to open our eyes to what is really going on - to the fact that we are living in a society that is quickly becoming the branded property of global corporations like McDonald's, Nike, Shell, etc. Klein not only attempts to document this anticorporate attitude in No Logo but to engender it within her readers, to fuel the fire of resistance. It is no accident or coincidence that she quotes Y.B. Manguinwijaya on the very first page of the book, before we read anything else (except the title), we are informed that "You might not see things yet on the surface, but underground, it's already on fire."

Part I: "No Space" examines the surrender of culture and education to marketing (xxi) according to the Klein. This section of the book is devoted to introducing the notion that every facet of our lives are overrun by corporate logos - from the landscape to the shower - we are part of a "new branded world" (title of chapter 1). Klein starts off by basically tracing the history of the corporate logo and the process that led to our current branded state of affairs - the colonizing of public and private space through various means by corporate ideals. She notes that what corporations are selling are not products but the brands themselves - they appeal to our emotions and desires to be something beyond what we are: Nike, for example, is leveraging the deep emotional connection that people have with sports and fitness (quoting Scott Bedbury, 21). As a student of philosophy, I find it to be a biting irony that I, along with the rest of society, have been duped into following the corporate trends through such an open logical fallacy as the argument ad populum (appeal to emotion).

Following this introduction, the reader is introduced to the idea of brand expansion and the systematic consumption of space by the superbrands such as Nike, Adidas, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, etc. Here, the notion of selling brand instead of product is identified as paramount to being a superbrand - this notion is threaded throughout the rest of the book and becomes recognized as the primary cause of the evils in the export processing zones(where products are branded). We are shown how the brand has infiltrated the public school system and the post-secondary environment to such an extent that branded lunch menus, school uniforms, athletic equipment, even in-school television channels have become a cultural norm of western society. How did all of this come about? Klein ends this section of the book and her fifth chapter by writing that her generation of activists "were too busy analyzing the pictures being projected on the wall to notice that the wall itself had been sold" (124) - a description that is too similar to Plato's famous Cave Analogy in the Republic to go unnoticed. Without going into the dialogue, the point she is making when she writes that "as we look back, it seems like willful blindness" (124) refers to the difficulty in recognizing our own ignorance.

Part II "No Choice" reports on how the promise of a vastly increased array of cultural choice was betrayed by the forces of mergers, predatory franchising, synergy and corporate censorship (xxi). The idea of freedom of choice is a great one, and diversity is one of the main buzzwords that fly around the corporate world. However, as Klein writes: "every other story… points directly to a loss of meaningful choices. The real question is not "Where do you want to go today?" but "How best can I steer you into the synergized maze of where I want you to go today?" (129). I am reminded of Earl Birney's fabulous poem Billboards Build Freedom of Choice which artfully illustrates the loss of public space and the ability to choose with a free will. In this part of the book, the reader is shown how the superbrands have rapidly spread throughout the entire world - like some sort of virus - to such an extent that it is seemingly impossible to escape them. Take McDonald's for example: the "golden arches" has brand-bombed the world to such a degree that it is more recognized worldwide than the Christian Cross (as was stated in the McLibel video). Take that into account, along with the constant mergers that seem to be reported, and the only choice that consumers have left is between the very few superbrands that are out there. Movies like You've Got Mail highlight the plight of small businesses as they try to hold out, but eventually have no choice but to give in and accept defeat at the hands of the more powerful corporations. In addition, the brands themselves, we are shown, tend to censor our "choices" in terms of their brand ideals - Wal-Mart rejects CDs and magazines because of content, Blockbuster Video refuses any movie that has an NC-17 rating, etc. The point is that from every possible direction, it seems that our choices have become non-choices, unless you count the choice not to buy anything.

Part III "No Jobs" examines the labour market trends that are creating increasingly tenuous relationships to employment for many workers, including self employment, McJobs and outsourcing, as well as part-time and temp labour (xxi). In this part of the book, the reader is introduced to a close-up view of the export processing zones in various parts of the world. Part interview, part anecdote, part reporting, Klein explores the relationships between the superbrands and their foreign contractors as well as the state of the job market back here in North America. All of my life I have heard about the quandary that factory workers have constantly found themselves in in the United States - I have even seen movies that have been based partially on factory closures. I have even heard about the fact that large companies like Nike, etc, have moved their factories to other countries and "down south" because it is cheaper for them, but I never understood why it was cheaper or what the implications behind the "flight" of the factories really are. Actually, it isn't entirely fair to say that I didn't understand, but simply that I didn't think about it - it was part of a storyline or a news broadcast that, beyond being censored, had nothing to do with me (*slap* -- that's me, whapping myself in the face).

This part of the book also takes a look at the job situation as it exists for people who are employed in North America as well. The idea of the "permatemps" at the Microsoft Corporation is appalling, not to mention the situation in the service industry. Klein says it best when she writes that "These are great jobs, in other words, for people who don't really need them" (232). Not only are corporations moving their production lines to areas of the world where they are free to abuse, underpay and endanger the lives of their workers, but they search out loop-holes in employment laws in their home countries - like the "part time" workers who work only one hour per week less than a "full time" worker, which means that they are not privy to the same pay, benefits or job security that a "full timer" is. Not only is there no job security in this industry, but the corporations work hard to keep unions from forming. I can relate to this on a personal level, as I worked for Irving Oil for about three years while I was in high school and through part of my first year at University - at one point I sat in a room filled with co-workers and listened as my boss (who looked like he was about to cry) explained that if a union was formed at that particular location (someone had attempted to begin the process of unionization) then the station would be closed and we would all lose our jobs… he cited the situation in Gander a couple of years before as proof. The union was rejected. Part III ends with the chapter entitled "Breeding Disloyalty" which is exactly what this kind of work environment does - when you are treated like you don't matter by your employer, whether it be McDonald's, Microsoft, or Irving, you return the favour.

Part IV "No Logo" [chronicles] an activism that is sowing the seeds of a genuine alternative to corporate rule. It was in reading this final part of the book that Joseph Joulbert's words kept echoing in the back of my head "The aim of an argument or discussion should be progress, not victory." In speaking with others in the class, I have heard many comments about No Logo. One of the most serious was that Naomi Klein doesn't offer an alternative - she doesn't give us anywhere to go. However, if you would like to flip back to page one of this overview, you will note that this wasn't her intention. Klein meant only to capture the spirit of the anticorporate attitude that is gripping so many people around the planet, from sweatshop workers, to the kids in St. Mary's Secondary School in Pickering, Ontario. Despite her intentions, Klein does more than simply capture a spirit… for because of the fact that she does this successfully, No Logo, as The New York Times writes, is essentially "A movement bible." Not in the sense that Klein is a prophet or anything, but that her work shines a spotlight on the positive in a world of corporate darkness. She does not give us anywhere to go… she simply tells us what is (hence the fact that at many points I felt like I was reading a 450 page newspaper article) - it's up to us, as readers, as consumers, as people, to take up the fight. This doesn't mean that we should head out and retake the streets of St. John's or re-work the Subway billboard on Elizabeth Avenue (although neither would be a bad idea)… it does mean, however, that we ought to be actively aware.

Part IV is by far my favourite part of No Logo. I particularly enjoy Klein's investigation of culture jamming and RTS parties - although I personally find aspects of each to be very questionable. Whereas adbusting, jamming, etc. have become hi-tech and complex, it is clear that adbusting has been around ever since advertising has - today however, it has become more popular, more accessible and more necessary. So, what does being more actively aware mean? What is Klein's message to her readers? I would argue with those who say that she doesn't give us anywhere to go… in her reporting of the situation, she identifies what is occurring that can eventually help to rectify the situation. Having a street party isn't the answer, at least not in and of itself, but it is a part of the solution.

Perhaps the greatest message in this final part of the book is that while transnational corporations - the superbrands - seem too powerful and impressively massive to touch, it is exactly this quality/characteristic that can lead to their demise. This is what Klein calls the "Brand Boomerang;" the idea that, as David D'Alessandro states: "It can take 100 years to build up a good brand and 30 days to knock it down." Because corporations like Nike, Shell and McDonald's are so powerful and their brands are so well known, it makes it easier for news about them to spread, especially with the intercommunication that the internet currently allows. This is why, I believe, Klein chose to end the book as open-endedly as she has- not because she does not tell us where to go from here, but because she wants to tell us where we are. She writes

...as connections have formed across national lines, a different agenda has taken hold, one that embrases globalization but seeks to wrest it from the grasp of the multinationals. Ethical shareholders, culture jammers, street relcaimers, McUnion organizers, human rights hacktivists, school-logo fighters and internet corporate watchdogs are at the early stages of demanding a citizen-centered alternative to the international rule of the brands. That demand, still sometimes in some areas of the world whispered for fear of a jinx, is to build a resistance - both high-tech and grassroots, both focused and fragmented - that is as global, and as capable of coordinated action, as the multinational corporations it seeks to subvert.