by Garrison Frost

What would you do if you went into a store and the person behind the counter told you that, if you would pay a small fee, the store would allow you to walk around all day holding a poster advertising the business? Like any sane person, you would probably tell the person to stick it.

Amazingly, however, very few people understand that this is exactly what businesses that charge money for T-shirts with commercial logos are doing. The more one thinks about it, it’s pretty generous of us to wear these T-shirts advertising surf labels, shoe companies and multinational corporations. It’s even more generous that we’ll pay for the privilege.

So how do these people get us to do it? Why would we want to become walking advertisements for somebody else’s business? The answer lies in the concept of branding. To most people, branding is what Michael Landon used to do on television’s “Bonanza.” To modern advertising agencies, branding is gospel. It is the difference between McDonald’s and Carl’s Jr., between Nike and L.A. Gear, between Ford and Kia.

Long ago, advertisers realized that there was a lot more to be made by selling consumers brands than by simply selling shoes, chairs and basketballs. Brands signify much more than products, they denote lifestyles, cultures and status. A brand can be safety. A brand can be trust.

We don’t worry about becoming advertisements for other people because we think we’re advertising ourselves. We’re not just wearing a T-shirt, we’re identifying ourselves with Nike or Vans or Billabong. It’s a way we want to be seen. At least that’s what the manufacturers and the advertisers are hoping we’ll do.

Every so often a funny trend pops up wherein clothing designers invent false brands for T-shirts and hats and sweats. These logos are usually created with the same amount of care as the real corporate logos, and the intention is to allow us to wear stuff with cool designs on them without forcing us to become billboards. These false logos almost always fail, however. Nobody buys them because, despite what we say, it’s not the cool design we are after. It’s the association with the brand that appeals to us.

Of course, that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Just because a company makes money doesn’t make it evil. It’s just important for us to realize the role we’re playing as consumers in the grand scheme of things. I’d rather wear a Patagonia shirt than one with the Exxon logo on the back. You don’t want to be a billboard for just anybody. And you don’t have to be a billboard at all if you don’t want to.