Happiness

Happiness is fast becoming the latest thing marketers promise to deliver. Coke is currently all about " Happiness in a bottle", provided of course that you're looking at things from the "Coke side of Life".

OK, I'm enough of a cynic to rise to that. I love to collect quotes and this is one of my favourites:

"Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular.
But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness."
- Robertson Davies

See, it does always come down to the value of the brand.

Bonfire Of The Brands

Bonfire Of The Brands

In 1497 the Bonfire of the Vanities, courtesy of Girolamo Savonarola, consumed pornography, lewd pictures, pagan books, gaming tables, cosmetics, copies of Boccaccio's Decameron, and all the works of Ovid which could be found in Florence.

On September 17, 2006 Neil Boorman is going to burn all his branded goods in an attempt to re-evaluate his lifestyle.
Neil Boorman is a the consummate label whore. He is also a DJ, a writer for The Guardian, and founder of a satirical fanzine called The Shoreditch Twat.
On September 17 all of his shoes, clothes, designer bags, furniture and electronics will go into a massive bonfire and he will begin to live an "un-branded life". This blog is a diary of his journey towards a brand-free lifestyle complete with a countdown to the bonfire and the publishing of his book, hmmmmmm.

Is the whole thing just a publicity stunt to sell another book on brands and why they are or are not evil? Or is Neil Boorman really going to be able to live his life with nothing but a carefully de-branded iBook and stock his shelves with no-name hummus and non-branded plimsolls (running shoes)? Check his blog to see or follow the publicity storm as it unfolds.