tl;dr: we make snap decisions about people because we have to; the world moves fast. therefore we want people to make the right snap decision about us, so we brand ourselves with bits and pieces of all the brands out there that we think convey us to the outside world. the line between brand and "me" get very blurry. when a person says "I hate brand X", because of that blurry line, they are saying/you are hearing: "I hate X% of you!"

---------------------------------

We have all seen this online at some point or another... Apple/Windows, iPhone/Android, Xbox/PS3, Vegetarian/Paleo, etc. and unfortunately I imagine a good number of us have experienced this in-person as well.

Bumping heads with someone fully ingrained in their brands is frustrating like no other, but why is it so pervasive? What is lacking in a person's life such that they carry around the brand of their favorite product with more pride then their own self-worth/intelligence/curiosity/love-of-life?

It seems like a global identity crisis.

Advertising tells us we HAVE to be different, we HAVE to be unique. God forbid I be exactly like my neighbor and we understand each other with a little bit of compassion... screw that, he's an idiot, and I am smart.

Then you see people so desperately clawing at uniqueness that things like branded clothing and devices just do not cut it anymore and you have explosive growth in body modifications[1]; tattoos to piercings in every other person I see at a coffee shop or walking down the street anymore.

I don't actually care what people do; if you need to feel different, go for it. What I do care about is the obsessive need for it in order to live your life. I feel like that is an artificial requirement that does nothing good for any of us.

Advertising has convinced us so whole heatedly that unless we are different (like everyone else) we won't be happy.

So it isn't much of a surprise that I compose myself, like a Frankenstein of identities, with a dash of iPhone, a sprinkle of back tattoos, a hint of ear-loop piercings, a flick of BMW and a smattering of D&C shoes to properly and completely define myself to the world. A visual finger print of "who I am".

All these brands are a giant grab-bag of fractions of identities that advertisers have attached to each one that we reach into and stick to ourselves in order to convey an ideal to the world.

I am relaxed, but smart, aware of my self-image, like nice things and care about the earth. Ok, so I have an iPhone 5, I wear trendy silicon valley swag, drive a BMW 5-series and shop at Whole Foods with my flip flops on.

It seems to me that this is the fallout from two things:

1. Advertisers dividing and conquering us for a century.
2. Pace of life being magnitudes times faster now.

I don't have time to get to know you anymore, so I make a snap decision on who you are, what you believe in and how you live by looking at how you label yourself.

Nice suit, nice car, big house, practice law and live in Dallas? Then I guess you are a Republican, don't care about the earth, hate social programs and only care about yourself and your family.

See what conclusions I jumped to?

Now when I see you cutting your hedge and getting clippings on my lawn, I already hate you and decided you only care about yourself, so my opening sentence to you is "Hey Jerkface, come rake this up!"

Nevermind the fact that even if I lived next to you for 10 years, I might never get to know you anyway.

I don't know that any of this is "wrong" or "bad", it just is what it is. We jump to snap decisions because we don't have the time NOT to. Because we jump to snap decisions we want to make sure we brand ourselves in the proper way to convey the RIGHT snap decision.

So the line between "me" and "my brands" are blurring really badly. If I identify myself with the brands I chose, to some extent those brands ARE me.

If you hate those brands, then you hate me... and I hate you.

Which is unfortunate.

[1] http://images.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&sourc...