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Investing in a brilliant new YOU™: the rise and tyranny of the 'personal brand' | Investing in a brilliant new YOU™: the rise and tyranny of the 'personal brand' |
(4 months later) | |
So, do you have a brand then? An objectively absurd question, but one that is approaching normality: the concept of the “personal brand” is, to use another buzzword, getting traction. | |
A 1997 article by Tom Peters in Fast Company entitled The Brand Called You has been credited with really kicking off the idea. Peters counselled that it was “time to take a lesson from the big brands ... that’s true for anyone who’s interested in what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of work”. | |
Notwithstanding the article’s enthusiasm, its message is simple: there's no alternative. In One Market Under God, his study of the 1990s American business culture, Thomas Frank wrote that market populism “salutes choice and yet tells us that the triumph of markets is inevitable”, and the apparent need for a brand is presented in similarly stark terms. The language is all empowerment, but the effect is one of capitulation. | Notwithstanding the article’s enthusiasm, its message is simple: there's no alternative. In One Market Under God, his study of the 1990s American business culture, Thomas Frank wrote that market populism “salutes choice and yet tells us that the triumph of markets is inevitable”, and the apparent need for a brand is presented in similarly stark terms. The language is all empowerment, but the effect is one of capitulation. |
But just what exactly is a personal brand? One recent article seems to conclude it’s about “finding a positive way to stand out at work”, possibly involving tattoos, and being “unique” and “memorable”. In another telling piece, your personal brand is defined as living at the intersection of the answers to three questions (What makes me great? What makes me unique? What makes me compelling?), which suggests that developing one might be a bit of a challenging endeavour for the self-deprecating. | |
The basic points, though, appear fairly straightforward: know what you’re aiming to do and who you’re keen to impress; self-promote like a boss; try not to leave a trail of devastation in your wake that could backfire on you. That these elements are seen to comprise something novel is symptomatic of a growth industry in which venerable concepts like "reputation" are repackaged and sold back to us. | |
Of course, it's almost too easy to criticise personal brands, principally because it’s impossible to talk about having one without sounding hilarious: one book is entitled, in all seriousness, “How YOU™ are like shampoo”. Reading the endless, repetitive advice to adapt completely to the needs of the marketplace while somehow remaining unique and authentic, or seemingly oxymoronic tips about “humanising your brand”, the thought occurs that making fun of this sort of thing is akin to machine-gunning fish in a bucket. | |
Indeed, if you were looking for a cartoonishly simple example of what’s wrong with modern society, the “personal brand” might just be it: people are encouraged to think of themselves in a deliberately dehumanising way in order to succeed. You may as well tattoo the Nike swoosh on your forehead and offer your services to students writing despairing essays about the soul of man under neoliberalism. | |
I don’t want to snark at people who read this kind of supercharged self-help material in a desperate effort to climb a rapidly-vanishing ladder, or who yearn for a dream job. There is also nothing inherently wrong with being ambitious (and to pre-empt an obvious rebuttal, I’m certainly not pure: you’re reading this piece because it was published online rather than being gaffer-taped onto a rubbish bin in my local park). | |
It is however worth unpacking the concept of the personal brand rather than simply sniggering or shrugging, for it is a symptom of something bigger. It clings, remora-like, to a damaging cult of work in a world where busyness confers status and the workplace is often conceptualised as the place where humans are most fulfilled (notwithstanding inconvenient realities). | |
The notion of the personal brand flourishes in the uncertainty of post-industrial capitalism. William Arruda writes in Forbes, “if there is nothing unique about your strengths, you’re merely a commodity”. That is, seize the zeitgeist or suffer the fate of the unbranded worker. | |
Similarly, one book is entitled Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an ‘Employee’ into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion. This change of mindset from “worker” to “brand” is visualised as liberating (the company doesn’t own you! You’re not defined by your job!) but it could also be seen as limiting: whatever the branded self is, it doesn’t look much like a human being possessed of rights which must be respected by employers. Can one imagine a “personal brand” consistent with joining a union? | |
Further, humans have inconvenient characteristics not possessed by t-shirts and sneakers: we are social animals who need others in order to flourish. Pouring all our energy into “investing in YOU” would leave all but the most committed sociopath feeling empty. | |
This isn’t to say we can’t keep giggling at amusing branding advice, but let’s not lose sight of the broader picture. We are citizens, not just consumers: don’t surrender yet. | |
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