This is especially true with luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada. People are either trying to impress others with fakes, or they’ve actually paid full price to become walking billboards.

Similar thing with iPhone cases that have a cutout for the Apple logo. That’s just hilarious.

  • d00phy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    Generally, I agree with this. Not quite w/ regards to Nike and some other brands, (most of Nike’s competitors, Apple) , since they put the logo on everything as part of their design asthetic. Whether you like that or not is personal choice, of course. Personally, I miss the old colorful Apple logo.

    With luxury brands, yeah it’s a blatant cash grab extracting money from poorer people by selling them the mirage of owning something luxurious. The stuff you buy at the mall isn’t sold at their Rodeo Drive location! That said, some luxury brands do qualify for “buy it for life” status, though having the kind of quality isn’t exclusive to luxury brands (see also: Zippo lighters, and many many other solid, reasonably priced brands).

  • kamen@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    Same sentiment here - but with the exception of band t-shirts and other merchandise - where in most cases you do want to show your support for the artist.

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      I definitely consider a band shirt an ad as well, but wearing one feels like a conscious decision to show your preference for that band and perhaps attract like-minded people. With clothing brands, however, it’s more about signaling wealth and status rather than admiration for the brand itself. You’re wearing an ad and being oblivious to it.

      • filcuk@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 months ago

        It’s the exact same thing, you just have different goals and values from the other group of people

        • vala@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 months ago

          Well one is about money and the other is about art and culture so idk if they are really the same thing.

        • s38b35M5@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 months ago

          A band is not the same as a luxury fashion brand.

          One is exploited by massive corporations, gets a single digit percentage of the profits they generate, gets known by word of mouth (or T-shirt) among fans, and creates a piece of culture.

          The other is a (usually massive) corporation, exploits low paid workers, is a status symbol for the rich and the people who want to appear as rich, and sometimes they make an item that could technically be considered a piece of culture.

          Advertising for and/or showing your support for them are very different things that imply different things, for different reasons.

          Wearing band merch implies support for their musical stylings, a connection with the creative output of the band, and possibly their world view.

          Wearing a logo-festooned piece of couture clothing implies wealth and status, and (often) complicity with sweat shops.

          While the two previous paragraphs seem to be similar, because of the first two paragraphs, they are quite different.

          • filcuk@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            8 months ago

            The concept is the same. You’re advertising your favourite band, they’re advertising their need for approval.
            I don’t know how the brands exploitation of their workers is in any way relevant to this.

        • kamen@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          A sports piece of clothing or equipment is functional with or without the flashy branding; a piece of merch however is not (especially if it’s just decorative - like a pin, a sew-on patch or something like that).

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      I was conteplating between Unpopular Opinion and Showerthought but it feels more like an thought than an opinion and I don’t think it’s very unpopular either.

      • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 months ago

        Honestly, I think you chose right just because I don’t think this is that unpopular an opinion. Maybe there should be a grindsmygears community for people to air their annoyances, but I can imagine that going downhill from sensible stuff like this to kind of a cesspool.

  • Paradachshund@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    It’s a symbol of wealth. They want you to know the brand because it tells others they have the means to afford it.

    I totally agree with you, though. It’s tacky.

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      It is, but it doesn’t always work that way. Driving an expensive car is also a symbol of wealth, but my first thought is that there’s no way you paid cash. To me, it signals poor financial choices, which isn’t typically what genuinely wealthy people do.

      • Tamo240@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 months ago

        At least an expensive car is usually a better product though, so many of these t-shirts are simply cheap cotton but the price is $$$$ because the logo of a company that also makes actually expensive products is on it.

  • 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    Have you seen music lyrics? They’re full of advertisements.

    People pride themselves to be walking billboards. I think it somewhat resembles wearing the coat of arms of your lord in the millennia before.

    • brrt@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      You’re probably talking about pop/rap? Because I’m pretty sure that there isn’t a single song in my music library that mentions products/brands.

      • Baggins@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        I thought that about my music collection. Apart from one of the tracks on ‘Selling England By The Pound’ I don’t think I have either ;-)

        The band - Genesis. The track - ‘Aisle of Plenty’. The year - 1973

  • Jumi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    I have a hoodie that has “Moshed Potatoes” on it and you should get it too.

  • MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    This is happening with non-luxury brands too. I was looking for a simple sports t-shirt lately and it’s actually really hard to find one without a huge brand logo at the front. Do people actually like this?

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      I don’t. I really dislike any type of letting on my shirts. Not merely advertising, but inane stuff like ‘Hollywood’ or something. If I do wear text I must agree on it and most clothing brands fail to come up with stuff I want my clothing to say

  • 4lan@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    I was literally just thinking this less than an hour ago. The idea of paying to be a billboard is wild to me I get bands, but brands??

  • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    I get most of my clothing free (I’m not picky and I’m a common size), so at least in my case, sometimes I paid nothing to look like an advertisement. I don’t really care what’s on the shirt, and some of them are logos I don’t recognize, so it could be anything. It’s there to keep me from being arrested or kicked out, and my primary criteria are comfort in texture and temperature. If it’s comfy, has no holes/stains and fits well, I’m not worried about what design it has on it.

    …To a point, I’m not wearing anything bigoted (though part of me enjoys the idea of a queer autistic immigrant getting use out of bigotry by wearing it inside out, but not enough)

    My favorite sweatshirts are my uniform sweatshirts from the bakery I work at- they’re high quality and comfy as hell, plus I’ll never, ever wear them at work because it’s a bakery, it’s hot as fuck.

  • marx2k@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    I find the same to be true when people buy cars with illuminated insignia in the grill. Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, for example.

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      I’d snip the wires immediately if my car had one like that.

      Though, interestingly on my previous car I tried a front mask without the logo on it and it looked weird. Like something was missing and I didn’t like that. I then ended up just blacking out the logo like I did with my current one and I think it looks better that way. From the tailgate I did remove it along with other markings and I much prefer the clean look.

    • piskertariot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      I would challenge you to find a modern automobile manufacturer who doesn’t make their logo huge and illuminated. Also, you can no longer remove them, as they’re often now build into the body-work or grille .

      • marx2k@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 months ago

        I’ve never seen an illuminated logo from manufacturers other than those I’ve listed. Large, sure. Though some like Kia or Hyundai I haven’t seen get huge. Honda, maybe?

        • TXL@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 months ago

          Tesla, funnily enough, is also quite subtle. As is Alfa Romeo unless you count the entire scudetto as a logo. Ferrari. McLaren. Lamborghini. There might be a pattern there.

  • dan1101@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    Yeah I think if you’re going to be advertising their brand the product should be free or they should even be paying you to wear it out in public.