Brands are obsessed with appearing cool; therefore, they capture and mine youth

Targeting and subverting a specific brand 
can be an effective method for criticizing a 
multinational.
Brands wield a tremendous amount of cultural 
power in modern society. They battle for our 
economic and cultural attention in many areas of 
society and continuously push themselves into 
new spheres of our lives.
Due to this constant brainwashing, brand names 
and their logos have burned themselves onto 
our consciousness. Certain brands and their 
images, slogans and logos are known by almost 

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everyone. Yet, for companies, there is also a 
negative side to this cultural ubiquity.
Brands can be subverted and their popularity 
and omnipresence used against them to frame 
criticisms 
of 
the 
multinationals. 
Activist 
campaigns can be made relevant to people by 
attaching them to a well-known brand, severely 
damaging its image.
The 
many 
campaigns 
against 
Western 
multinationals’ use of sweatshops – the very 
cheap, unregulated labor in the Third World – 
have been given an extra kick by tying the 
campaigns to brands. Taking a branded piece of 
clothing and highlighting the conditions of the 
workers who made it can provide a relevance to 
Western consumers who can then boycott that 
brand until they improve their practices.
Another way in which brand identities can be 
subverted is through so-called culture jamming, 
where activists use a brand’s own dominance of 
public space against them. Culture jammers will 
often use a spray can and a stencil to subtly 
change advertisements and other branded 
images to represent another point of view. 
Slogans can be rewritten and images touched 
up to provide a subverted meaning. For 
example, Nike’s slogan ‘Just do it’ could become 
‘Justice, do it Nike’ or ‘Just don’t do it.’
Targeting and subverting a specific brand can be 
an effective method for criticizing a multinational.