Why do people give Corporations free advertising wearing their CORPORATE LOGOS ?

[Attero Dominatus]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8296741

AnArmyVeteran  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat May-08-10 03:24 PM
Original message
Why do people give Corporations free advertising wearing their CORPORATE LOGOS ?   Updated at 3:26 PM
   
I do not buy ANY clothes with corporate logos prominently displayed. I refuse to be a walking billboard for a company.

Corporations should be required to PAY people wearing their logos. They are forced to pay celebrities, why not us? I wonder how much Tiger Woods makes just for wearing his red shirts with a Nike swish during golf tournaments. Just because someone is well known shouldn't give them special rights under the law to force companies to compensate them, when we get nothing.

I have never figured out why anyone would want to voluntarily showcase a corporation's brand on their bodies. What kind of status symbol is it to be an unpaid walking billboard for a corporation? I just don't get it. And I don't understand the fascination people have with buying Nike or Reebox shoes. Every clothing or department store I've shopped all have logo-laden clothes for sale. I've seen racks of t-shirts with nothing on them except a corporate logos selling for $10-$15. A lot of times I find a piece of clothing I like, but when I see it has a corporate logo prominently visible, I put it back on the shelf.

Every time I look at a sporting event it looks like all of the players are 'infected' with the same logos, like they were branded by their masters. It's sad when you even see middle and high school teams all wearing uniforms with corporate logos. How did schools get by before selling out to corporations? And how did kids learn more in the past without corporate intrusions into their school lives than they do now with corporate intrusions? (1) (see below)

Count me out. I would rather go barefoot and naked before buying 'brand name' pieces of clothing with corporate logos splattered all over them. The Nike 'swish' just reminds me of the slaves and children working in sweatshops who made those shoes. BTW, when I researched this a few years ago it cost Nike 5 bucks to make each pair, including paltry salaries for the exploited workers, shipping, taxes, import fees, and all other expenses to get them into the US. Then, they turn around and sell their shoes for $100 - $200 a pair. That's a big price to pay for a swish logo. I bet 99.99% of the people couldn't tell the difference between a real Nike shoe or a fake one without that logo.

In the 1970s companies started offering VW Bug owners payments to have their cars painted or decaled with advertising. A friend of mine took them up on their offer because the amount she was paid was equal to her car payment. It was called "Beetleboarding". I thought it was a clever way to advertise and at least the person advertising for the company was compensated. I'm not anti-advertising, but I believe people should be compensated for being walking advertisements.

(1) Has anyone seen that story aired a couple of months ago about poverty stricken Somoans who hold football practices with nothing but old, used, broken and discarded sports equipment? And yet Somoans have the highest per capita representation in the NFL. So it doesn't take the best and latest equipment to learn or be great. They are teaching their children something a lot more valuable in American Somoa than they are here.
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Why do people wear clothes with corporate logos? Maybe because they like said clothes? Maybe the logos look cool? Maybe it is because it is their choice and not yours?

Corporate logo shirts are better than the Che shirts you DUmbsits love!  

The_Commonist  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat May-08-10 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
1. Because people are suckers?
   
I don't wear corporate logos either.
I have been paid (a tiny amount... I'm not any kind of celebrity) to do so.
Other than that, I would not even consider it.

It's branding.
People want to identify with the lifestyle their favorite brands represent.
It's sort of shorthand for "this is who I am."
And, of course, because people are suckers...
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beyurslf  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat May-08-10 03:32 PM
Response to Original message
7. Corporations are not "forced" to pay Tiger Woods or other celebs for wearing their clothes.
   
They want to pay the famous to wear them so that people who idolize those stars will also want to wear their clothes. There is no law about it or special rights. Nike would pay you to wear their clothes if they believed that having you do so would get others to do it as well.
And schools turned to corporations when states started slashing budgets and cut funding for sports' programs.
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Gin  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat May-08-10 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. I agree that we should be paid....same with car dealerships
   
slapping their name on the vehicles we buy....irritates me to no end.....it's free advertising.
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And promotion is wrong how?

[Freeper]

Tell you what DUmmies if you do not want to pay companies to advertise their product then don't buy the tee shirt, hat or whatever.

[cavegal]

This has been a pet peeve for me.. How the heck do we have to PAY for them to advertise????

[Thor]

I'll admit, I REFUSE to purchase anything with a corporate logo on it. I remember the days when those types of things were giveaways. I do have one exception and that is clothing that may advertise or show support for my favorite NFL team. That said, if a company wants to give me something with their logo, I may or may not wear/ use it.

[Randy]

This has been a pet peeve for me.. How the heck do we have to PAY for them to advertise????

Damnit


I have to agree myself.

If they GIVE me the shirt I'll wear it but I will NOT go buy one to advertise. Ron Jons here in Cocoa Beach is the worst. Come buy our $25 to be cool tee-shirts, hey take a pic and send it in. If it's an exotic locale we'll use it for free advertisement.  

I also have to agree with the car lot comment DUmmie.

I feel a disruption in the force....

[cavegal]

Damnit


I have to agree myself.

If they GIVE me the shirt I'll wear it but I will NOT go buy one to advertise. Ron Jons here in Cocoa Beach is the worst. Come buy our $25 to be cool tee-shirts, hey take a pic and send it in. If it's an exotic locale we'll use it for free advertisement.  

I also have to agree with the car lot comment DUmmie.

I feel a disruption in the force....

Around here it is Cabbela's , not cheap either!

[thundley4]

I can remember when Izod shirts were the big thing.  Other than the occasional free baseball cap with a logo on it , I have nothing with corporate logos. 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

The logos on my clothes say US Army.

A brand known and respected around the world.

[thundley4]

The logos on my clothes say US Army.

A brand known and respected around the world.

And in some cases, feared.

[The Village Idiot]

Just because someone is well known shouldn't give them special rights under the law to force companies to compensate them, when we get nothing

Um, those companies are not forced dimwit, they jump at the chance to pay these celebrities to hawk their stuff. I mean, really, how stupid can a person be?

[formerlurker]

There is something seriously wrong with the MLB misfit that wants to parade around in this corporate logo:





There should be a law..........

[miskie]

Its the choice of the person who wears the clothes, as it should be - If someone wants to wear clothes with corporate icons and logos on them, fine - if they would rather not, fine.

HOWEVER, I suspect this thread has nothing to to with corporate branded clothes, and everything to do with people wearing shirts with American flags printed on them, in American schools, on American soil, during a Mexican holiday.

[LC EFA]

I buy and wear clothing that I like, couldn't give a rats ass if it has some logo on it or not provided it's a quality garment and I like the look of it.

[diesel driver]

Well, hell....

Call me a "corporate whore" then....

I've worn "IH", "Ford", "Adidas", "Old Navy", "VT", and "WVU" caps and clothes for years....    

[ScubaGuy]

Around here it is Cabbela's , not cheap either!

I have a Cabella's cap that I wear all the time, but they gave it to me for free just like my John Deere one.

[Lord Undies]

And why is that damn funeral home logo at the bottom of the obit I paid to run in the paper?  Hmmmm?

Capitalist crooks! (except for sports team  )

[Doc Savage]

Do they peel the dealer logo off their cars?  that is free advertising.  Do they refuse pens from marketers?   Like veggans wearing hemp shoes.  Great idea, just no good for walking to the community farm

[AprilRazz]

I won't pay for a logo item for the most part. But if it is a decent garment and the price is good then I will overlook the logo.
But I did take the dealer sticker and Jeep logo off my JK.

As far as the Che shirts I never got that. Why walk around with a murderer on your chest?

[Tucker]

I don't know if any of you have been paying attention to AnArmyVeteran but he is on my top ten list for "10". That DUmmy found a home when he found DU.

[dandi]

I had a CAT (Caterpillar) hat once. It's practically Louis Vuitton down here.

Gin  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat May-08-10 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. I agree that we should be paid....same with car dealerships
   
slapping their name on the vehicles we buy....irritates me to no end.....it's free advertising.

Those usually peel off easily enough if they haven't been on a long time. Besides, you can sometimes remove certain letters or rearrange them to spell out funny messages.

[kenth]

As far as the Che shirts I never got that. Why walk around with a murderer on your chest?

They are only told in government schools and by common leftist misinformation that he was a freedom fighter. They were just never told that he fought freedom, not defended it. They're little Marxist drones, unwilling to think for themselves.

As for logos, I don't like the auto dealer ads on vehicles, and don't get the importance of wearing a company's logo on clothing. It's just a social status thing I guess. But the difference between us and the dummies, especially the dummy OP, is their thinking that government needs to be involved in people wearing logos. The government schools really did their job well.

[debk]

I do admit to occasionally wearing a ball cap with Grey Goose on it. And it was a gift. 

[Karin]

Yeah, Tucker, I've noticed the guy.  Extremely stupid.  Almost mole-like in his over-the-top misunderstanding of our real world.  Wish he'd have picked a different name, but oh well.  A perfect little example of the stupidity is this:

Just because someone is well known shouldn't give them special rights under the law to force companies to compensate them, when we get nothing.

  You have everything right there:

Celebrity/class envy
Special rights envy
Ignorance of the law
Pretending that they are not ignorant of the law
The little-guy-gets-nothing pity party

Anyway, I don't wear logos, but that's just a personal fashion decision.   

[BlueStateSaint]

Wish he'd have picked a different name, but oh well.

He didn't say which army he was a veteran of . . . (Where's that "French Special Forces" picture from a Monty Python episode?)

[The Village Idiot]

Again, the companies are not forced to compensate them, they are happy to paay these celebs to wear their stuff.