Branding of the Lifeworld: Corporate Colonization

I agree with Chetan about the hegemonic and dehumanizing influence of brands in our lives. I also concur with the importance of movements like the Swadeshi movement and how they are strong post-modern expressions of resistance against cultural imperialism. But when one talks of brands and the danger from them, I believe it would be naive to just stop at foreign brands. The colonization of the lifeworld occurs regardless of where a brand originates from. Brands are corporate identities. And a Corporation is a corporation, regardless of nationality. Its a psychopathic apparatus of exploitation and it remains that whether it exists in India, America, Europe or Pakistan.

Reliance is as exploitative as Wallmart and Tata as exploitative as Ford or Toyota. The fact that they are Indian does not change anything. Although they keep playing on their Indian-ness through high profile CSR campaigns and advertisements, making us believe that just because they are from the same country as us, they are more credible, less exploitative and are therefore less likely to engage in unethical business practices. 

They make us believe that the money we give them will stay in India and be used for the development of India, when actually all it is used for is corporate expansion, sponsoring governments, altering policies pushing for more neo-liberalisation and less state interference and furthering their own profit. The biggest fraud that they play upon draws fuel from nationality. They propagate that becasue they are from India, they will work towards the advancement of this Nation. And unfortunately, the Government supports them in this opinion manufacturing process. 

The fact that their only motive is to earn ugly, insensitive and irrational profits makes them all the same no matter which country they come from. Now they don't care where they get it from, as long as they get it alright. Coming to apparel manufacturers, they employ, like any other corporation, the same production methods designed to give out bare minimum wages and maximise profits. All they are concerned about is that they get their products made for the least possible cost. They don't care if this is achieved through making laboureres work under sweatshop conditions and extreme violations of human rights. The fact that they are 'Indian' or 'foreign' or even 'multinational' does not change anything. 

More on these lines, Indian textile or apparel makers today, are following the same design trends as their multinational counterparts. This is such a dumb submission to cultural imperialism. They would never design ethnic Indian wear on a mass scale. The trends are dictated by the west and they follow it blindly. The corporation is therefore, a highly deterritorialized entity. It exists in the same way regardless of geography; it exists for the same purpose, for the same reason and for the same class of people everywhere.

Further Reading: No Logo by Naomi Klein

The Corporation by Joel Bakan