“We work to uncover the societal and unconsciously rooted knowledge that shapes consumer behavior, to develop highly strategic
and powerful business building propositions. The deep human insights we discover, create more human brands”
Let us show you how to harness the power of applied anthropology to create lasting human connections. “
– from a Branding Company Corporate Mission Statement –
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As part of my process of Self Realization, today I want to look at the point of Brands, Branding, Branded within my Human experience.
I am Italian by birth and cultural programming, in Italy Brands are very important, Valentino, Armani, Prada, Miumiu, Max Mara, Dolce e Gabbana, Versace, each one of them brings up images and ideas about their particular brand, what they represent, what they are expressing, what they stand for as a Lifestyle, what they can add to our Lives.
Each one of them is a Club of their own, the access to the Club is exclusive and must be obtained through Money of course, the highest the image value they have been able to project, the more expensive the clothes and accessories. WHY ?
Because we are no longer just buying clothes and accessories for Self Expression, we are buying clothes and accessories to express what someone else has created and designed for us to express, and we pay a hefty price for it.
Brands have detroyed artisan businesses in Italy, because the small artisans could not compete with the kind of Money that BIG BRANDS could put up to create an Image, an idea of a lifestyle, an idea of WHO are the people that buy their clothes and accessories, we have gone beyond the idea of clothing the body, now we are playing the game of WHO can cloth it better, who can get more value for themselves through the investment of money. We are exchanging Money for our Personal Value. We are buying Our Value, Our Worth.
In Italy they have drilled into us the idea and belief that what is branded has more Value than what is NOT branded, the quality is better, by mental association so we came to accept and believe that Humans that are Branded, are more valuable than Humans that are Not.
Popular words used by the Branding Community : worth, value, quality, exclusivity (this is a favourite), uniqueness, originality, individuality.
I want to say that lately I have been buying 2 euros tee shirts for the gym and found NO difference in the quality, they are made of cotton, comfortable and practical. the same tee shirts by famous brands would cost around 80 to 100 euros, the 78 to 98 euro price difference is our worth, when we buy those clothes we are using the money that is not the worth of the clothing but the worth of the Brand to give value to ourselves. And so the more we own, the more value and worth we beLIEve we have in the daft ‘money comparison game’ that we have come to accept and believe we must play.
Yesterday I watched one of the series about ‘the century of Self’ and how big corporates came to understand that human beings in the 60s and 70s were moving away from buying their mass produced stuff, in search for ‘individuality’ and ‘uniqueness’, thus a new market was born with the help of Social Antropological studies, we call this field today ‘Applied Anthropology’.
What is ‘Applied Anthropology’ ?
here is the Wikipedia explanation
‘Applied anthropology refers to the application of the method and theory of anthropology to the analysis and solution of practical problems.’
Now don’t go dreaming about ‘practical problems ‘ like famine or how to prevent violence, wars, social inequality and social abuses, we have to bear in mind that any study that is taking place in this world at the moment is MONEY based, meaning it’s about how to make money, more money, how to stop people from not allowing the ones who are making money from making money, how to manipulate and bring the people that have briefly moved away from consumerism, due to social or historical event, back into consumerism.
Why is that, why aren’t we addressing the problems that are plaguing the world at the moment, why can’t we see, stop and take a look at this reality of inequality and abuse and work towards soutions that would benefit All Equally ?
Because everything that is happening in the world at the moment is determined by Money, Money has become the God of Man, nothing is more important than Money at the moment, no thing, no body .
If you doubt this have a look, this is Wikipedia explanation of examples of questions that an applied anthropologist would attempt to solve :
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If an American buys diapers at 2 am on a saturday in a grocery store, what is likely to be their next purchase ? -I am not joking , please check that out by yourself –
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How can public health authorities promote condom use among members of a particular sub-culture ? -note the use of this sentence, promoting condom use is not sponsored by health authorities, they are just the front line, these studies are promoted by Condom Manufacturers, who couldn’t care less about the health of the SUB- cultures, they just want to sell, so again Money running the show.
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How can anthropologist on Human terrain teams help the Military identify local traditions of cooperative endeavors that may apply to well maintenance in Afghanistan ? – translation of this sentence – how can the commoners be manipulated through their beliefs and traditions to cooperate to maintain something they did not want in the first place but since the Democratic Dream team went and built wells under their forced down the throath infrastructure projects – check out IMF and World Banks and what they do in thirld world countries for MONEY – now we need them to MAINTAIN THEM ON OUR BEHALF AND BE HAPPY ABOUT IT.
These are just examples of applied anthropology, the science behind Human Branding.
So, how did Human Branding come about ?
Through our needs and desires to be special, branding was nothing else but the reply to our own ‘desires to be unique individuals’, but uniqueness comes at a price, they license to us the right to ‘think and imagine’ ourselves as unique an exclusive.
When we look at it this way, it’s quite daft that we are participating in such a scheme at all, but how can we stop ?
We have to give up our desire to be unique and exclusive in favour of What is Best for All.
We have to give up our selfish desire to ‘dress up our Egos into imaginary personalities’, abdicate our wants and deep seated and suppressed desires for exclusivity in favour of What is Best for All.
Human Branding is a scam, it’s our Self Created Scam, we manifested it on our way of looking for value and worth outside of ourselves, in our quest for uniqueness and exclusivity.
We must stop EXcluding others to feel special, it’s time to include All in our quest for What is best for All, and we must remember, branding has just been revamped into ‘something good’ , have we forgotten what branding was all about just a few years ago ?
Let’s break free from our mental concentration camps that we have accepted and allowed hoping that we could ‘feel better about ourselves’.
We don’t need to feel worthy, to look for value outside of us, we need to stop believing we are worthless and find again our Value as Life, One and Equal to everything that exists.
Join us at Desteni, to change and free ourselves from the mental delusions we have embraced as real, there is only One of us Here, let’s drop our delusions for what is Best for All, we are One, not special, not unique, just One and Equal and that is more than enough once we can deeply grasp what it means.
Stand up, free yourself, do what is best for All as One and Equal www.desteni.co.za
Money Matters 