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NO LOGO AT TEN As I write this introduction, thinking about how much branding has changed in ten years, a couple of developments seem worth mentioning off the top. In May of 2009, Absolut Vodka launched a limited-edition line called “Absolut No Label.” The company’s global public relations manager Kristina Hagbard explains that, “for the first time we dare to face the world completely naked. We launch a bottle with no label and no logo, to manifest the idea, that no matter what’s on the outside, it’s the inside that really matters…. We encourage people to think twice about their prejudice, because in an Absolut world, there are no labels.” A few months later, Starbucks tried to avoid being judged by its own label by opening its first unbranded coffee shop in Seattle, called 15th Avenue E Coffee and Tea. This “stealth Starbucks” (as the anomalous outlet immediately became known) was decorated with “one-of-a-kind” fixtures and customers were invited to bring in their own music for the...

BLANK IS BEAUTIFUL THREE DECADES OF ERASING AND REMAKING THE WORLD Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.” —Genesis 6:11 (NRSV) Shock and Awe are actions that create fears, dangers, and destruction that are incomprehensible to the people at large, specific elements/sectors of the threat society, or the leadership. Nature in the form of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, uncontrolled fires, famine, and disease can engender Shock and Awe. —Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance, the military doctrine for the U.S. war on Iraq1 I met Jamar Perry in September 2005, at the big Red Cross shelter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dinner was being doled out by grinning yo...

The Enemy Within On 18 June 1984, five thousand striking miners descended on Orgreave, South Yorkshire, intent on disrupting deliveries of coal to the British Steel Corporation coking plant.10 They were matched by six thousand policemen, many mounted on horseback. The battle that ensued has been described as one of the most violent industrial disputes in British history. Having been outmanoeuvred by strikers in the past, the police approached Orgreave as a battle — as a chance to put an end to the strike once and for all. After trapping them in a nearby field, the Chief Constable ordered a mounted charge on the striking miners, followed by another, and another. During the final onslaught, officers charged in behind the cavalry and began beating miners with batons. Several hours later, the few miners that remained were charged again — this time entirely out of the field — leaving an “out-of-control police force [charging] pickets and onlookers alike on terraced, British streets”. Despit...