There's a property in Panama where Trump has collected somewhere around $30 million just from selling his name to this property - it's somewhere between $30 million and $50 million. It would be so easy for a developer to slap on an extra $6 million to a Trump licensing deal and have that be a backdoor bribe. Who are we to say what that is worth? It's so ephemeral. And this is the appeal of selling something as ephemeral as a brand name, is that it can be inflated beyond all reason.
Naomi KleinI see The Gap ads as being a great example of how branding has changed. Those Gap campaigns are pop culture. They've been incredibly powerful. They have had the kind of effect on culture that a hit band has. Just look at The Gap's Khaki swing ads, which were music videos. They had this tremendous impact on the industry - suddenly everything started looking like Gap ads and it became difficult to know who was co-opting whom and who was creating culture.
Naomi KleinYou actually cannot sell the idea of freedom, democracy, diversity, as if it were a brand attribute and not reality -- not at the same time as you're bombing people, you can't.
Naomi KleinAnd if there is one thing we can be sure of, itโs that extreme weather events like Superstorm Sandy, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and the British floodsโdisasters that, combined, pummeled coastlines beyond recognition, ravaged millions of homes, and killed many thousandsโare going to keep coming.
Naomi KleinAnd that is what is behind the abrupt rise in climate change denial among hardcore conservatives: they have come to understand that as soon as they admit that climate change is real, they will lose the central ideological battle of our timeโwhether we need to plan and manage our societies to reflect our goals and values, or whether that task can be left to the magic of the market.
Naomi Klein