watch it: “The Good Consumer”

Great video! I've always thought it was ridiculous that we're expected to provide free advertising to companies by wearing their names and logos. The fashion industry has even convinced us that we should pay a premium for the privilege of being walking billboards for Nike, North Pole, Gucci, etc.

Mark my words, very soon after they finish development of that fabric that's able to display images, people will start selling ad space on their clothing. It's coming sooner than you think, and sadly, it'll only be an incremental shift from what we have now.

This free advertising made me so angry when I was a kid (I think Nike was the first one that I remember being annoyed by) that I cut the little Jansport tags off of my backpacks, and refused to wear any clothes with a visible company name. Drove my parents nuts.

This free advertising made me so angry when I was a kid (I think Nike was the first one that I remember being annoyed by) that I cut the little Jansport tags off of my backpacks, and refused to wear any clothes with a visible company name. Drove my parents nuts.

Ever read William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition? The protagonist has an allergic reaction (in the form of panic attacks and migraines) to brands. She has to remove all branding from her clothing and personal items or else she cannot function. Paradoxically, her job is "coolhunter" whose job it is to identify and make brandable the up-and-coming next things.

Have you ever read Max Barry's Jennifer Government? Where consumerism is taken to the absurdist extreme of people taking the last name of their employers. One of the characters, Hack Nike, figures out a way to make the latest Nike shoes irresistible by murdering people who buy them.

Seems this satire hits on elements from both.

I've read some of both of those; they play with some interesting ideas, but I haven't finished them yet. Thank you for the recommendations. By any chance, do you know of a site that is as well-run as this one that focuses on reviewing and discussing science fiction and/or fantasy novels, preferably (but not necessarily) from a modern feminist perspective?

There are tons of sites that review sci-fi novels, but the ones I've found are too big to wade through, or they don't allow any reader comments, or they do allow comments but don't moderate them in any meaningful way, or they're chock-full of teenaged drama queens and porn-addicted man-boys discussing Star Wars novels (not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not what I'm looking for at this point in my life).