Brand Snobbery

THE HOST: Now here's a man who typifies the problem for marketing people. Style journalist and music presenter Neil Balman doesn't want any branded possessions. So much so that he is preparing a big fire to burn them all. And he's writing a book about it and there will even be a TV show.

Neil, that's quite a big bold statement to burn all your possessions. Is it a controlled form of anger that you have?

NEIL: I am very angry about the way I feel I have been manipulated throughout all of my adult life to be quite honest. You know I am basically the product of a generation that has been marketed to, from the cradle and probably to the grave. This is the result of it now. I am part of that first generation that has been marketed to so much and obviously I am an extreme case. But personally I have come to the conclusion that I have become addicted to brands, I have become so dependent on them to bolster my self-esteem, to identify myself to other people and obviously to myself. Literally, I can't walk out of the flat of a morning without having these thing upon me to make me feel good about myself and to project my personal identity to other people. Without them I feel completely naked.

THE HOST: When you became aware that you were becoming a person that you didn't want to become because of brand obsession, what specifically was it, I mean was it the fact that had to have clothes always with logos all over it, a certain kind of the product, was it the food you were eating, was it the bike you were riding around on? What was the stuff? Or was it everything?

NEIL: Put it this way when I came here today, obviously my brand burning is about to happen in a couple of days time so I still have my branded stuff on me, when I was dressing to come here, I was thinking what's going to make me feel the most comfortable, what's going to impress the person that's interviewing me the most? I put those things on accordingly. I put on a pair of nice Helmut Lang shoes, I put on a crisp pair of Lee jeans, I put on my Christian Dior storm coat. And these things made me feel, make me feel, they transport me to this other place, to this other kind of person. Sitting in these things today I feel more confident, I feel more business-like, I feel more capable of dealing with the matters in hand. And that kind of attitude permeates my life from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. And it's not just myself, it's the snap judgements that I make on other people that's the huge problem. As soon as I see people walk past me in the street I clock what they are wearing on their breast, what they have got on their shoes, what mobile they have, what computer they are using, and I make snap judgements on those people. Now I dare say that a certain type of person drives a BMW, a certain type of person drives a Volvo. That might be true. But I have just recently come to think how many meaningful friendships and relationships have I passed up on the basis of this crazy brand snobbery? And I think it is probably quite a few.