Through this weeks reading the story changed from one of branding to one of the evils of corporate America. I was less impressed with the section of the book than I was the beginning part. Klein began several chapters with discussion about some form of illegal, and marginally creative work to fight "the man". I'm less impressed with this type of activity than I am with the creativity and flair that the marketing people have. The truth is, we as lazy instant-gratification-wanting Americans allow this marketing cluster to happen. When we break it all down the story really has less to do with the greedy corporation than it does with poor decision making and a general lack of identity of our own culture. It's really a story of the evils of consumerism, not corporate money making.

In her chapter concerning temporary labor, I can't say I have much pity. My company uses temporary labor quite regularly. This is our way of identifying individuals that would fit in well with our business. We use it as an audition. Ninety percent of our work force were originally brought on board through a temp agency. We've found some incredible individuals with this manner of recruiting. But, in order to get that level of competence we've probably gone through five temps for everyone one we hire. Most situations had nothing to do with ability. Most people were let go because of a lack of work ethic, zero motivation, or they just wouldn't show up for work. That's not mentioning the few that didn't come back because of jail sentences.
The reality of the situation is this, people don't want to work anymore. Our nation has become a culture of entitlement. Most people expect things to be handed to them. There is an unwillingness to work for what we get. They're unwilling to show up for a job that someone else found them, they're unwilling to do the minimum expected for the investment a company is willing to put in them. When a person takes a job there is a kind of agreement. They're providing a service to the company. When they don't provide that service adequately, unless they're fired, they still reap the full benefits of the employment. I feel it's not fair to always expect a company to give, give, give. Overseas labor is attractive mostly because Americans no longer want to do the dirty work. Someone has to do the cleaning and the serving. Enterprising people recognize this and use this need to their advantage. Most of the more wealthy people I know operate cleaning and lawn care businesses.
I get the feeling that Klein tries to make the reader feel like we're victims. And we are, but not really to the global corporations. While there is injustice overseas regarding labor, this has more to do with the cultural and governmental corruption of the local politics. Here in this country we've fallen victim to the leftist idea of entitlement minded behavior. This has created a lazy, uninterested work force.

I'm not very impressed with adbusting and culture jamming. While most of it is witty, there really isn't any creativity in the form. Taking someone else's idea and just messing around with it isn't creative. My impression is that these are all very witty people with too much time on their hands. The ultimate silliness was the gentleman who worked for advertising during the day and in his off time defaced the ads on which he probably worked. Actually, unless the defacement of these ads is very striking, most probably go unnoticed through the course of a day. A lost message in the sea of lost messages.
Klein does mention on page 295 how this action has led to a new brand of its own. You can see that type of marketing here, at the Adbusters.org culture shop:

http://www.adbusters.org/cultureshop/front

Through most of this second part of the book I've actually begun to feel insulted. The problem with this type of activity, and liberalism as a whole, is that it gets too preachy. Most people are in fact turned off by the higher-than-thow approach many activists take when communicating and issue. I really don't take kindly to someone telling me what I should or shouldn't do. Open and honest discussion is important for educating people, but childish antics, rebellious acts and soabox standing are really just a form of entertainment, not revolution.