False Brands

In his Consumed column, Rob Walker looks at a site in Nottingham, England that sells T Shirts with the logo of companies and places that appear in films and other 20th century fiction. He says:

LastExitToNowhere.com specializes in designs relating to “some of the most memorable places, corporations and companies in 20th-century fiction.” Other popular T-shirts on the site, which went up in June, include one for Tyrell (“More Human Than Human” is its motto), maker of genetic replicants in “Blade Runner,” and Polymer Records, a music label in “This Is Spinal Tap.”

Walker looks at other folks playing in the genre and suggests that false brands tend to be appealing because they are fake and “often encompass a kind of critique of the absurdity of branding itself”:

Souvenir T-shirts for places and things that don’t actually exist play off this by simultaneously endorsing something and smirking at the idea of wearable endorsement.

Rob Walker – Consumed – Marketing and Advertising – T-shirts – Logos – New York Times