Branded? Products and their Personalities edited by Gareth Williams.Victoria & Albert Publications, 95pp, £9.95 in UK
Brand.New. edited by Jane Pavitt.Victoria & Albert Publications, 224pp, £30 in UK
The way we live today, the food we eat, the drinks we drink, the clothes we wear, the holidays we take and the way we decorate our homes; what might loosely be called contemporary culture, has rarely exercised the minds of Irish academics, intellectuals or critics. Comment on these subjects tends to be lumped together under the vaguely dismissive heading of "lifestyle" and written by journalists with an all too obvious deadline.
They do things a little differently in Continental Europe, where leading academics are regularly found discussing everyday shopping encounters from a philosophical, sociological or anthropological angle. Confronted with a choice in a clothes shop the French person might ask "is this me?" This is the type of question, which if you're not careful could lead into a discussion about the meaning of life.
With our less existential cast of mind we simply settle for "does this make my bum look too big?" But all this may be about to change. The British, who tend to take the same approach as we do, are about to be presented with a major exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum later this month on the growing influence of brands in contemporary culture.
Two books are being published by the V&A to coincide with the exhibition. The smaller and cheaper of the two, Branded?, takes 90 well known brands and shows a picture on one page with a brief biography of the brand on the facing page. It is essentially a catalogue, albeit a very well produced one, of the exhibition.
The essays are too short to allow anything other than a cursory introduction to the subject but it would serve as a brief guide to the way in which brands have come to play an increasingly important part in everyday life.
The more weighty volume, in every sense of the word, is a much more serious work. It could be described as a coffee table book, but this somewhat patronising expression usually implies a lightweight pictorial approach to a subject and there's nothing lightweight about Brand.New. The book is divided into five sections. Each section opens with an extended essay followed by a number of shorter pieces, all interspersed with stunning photographs.
There are 19 contributors, mainly academics, some from marketing and business departments but including a wide range of disciplines from architecture to sociology. At the heart of this complex subject is the change that took place somewhere during the 20th century from looking at consumer goods at a functional level to a more experiential level.
Once upon a time we wore clothes to protect us from the elements and ate to prevent hunger. Now what we wear and what we eat is more about defining our place in society. The fact that we're not always conscious that this process is taking place doesn't make it any less real. Most of the essays attempt to explain when, why and how this change came about. A number of contributors make the point that traditional providers of identity - family, work, religious or political belief - have declined in importance, leaving consumer goods to fill the gap.
Not unlike the hero or anti-heroes of much of contemporary literature, today's consumer is depicted as a rootless, often isolated individual adrift in a world lacking the comfort and security of more close knit communities, trying to maintain a sense of balance by constructing an identity through the careful choice of consumer goods.
Modern individuals are made conscious that they speak not only with their voices but with their clothes, their cars, houses, furnishings, holiday destinations - in fact everything that they consume. The question of whether the individual is being manipulated by greedy and cynical manufacturers is considered - and rejected. Today's consumers are very much in control, conscious of making their own decisions, much less inhibited by considerations of social class, age or gender than in the past, and aggressive and demanding when it comes to quality and service.
If consumer goods are the new opium of the people, shopping centres are the new cathedrals. They are lovingly described and even more lovingly photographed and a number of contributors make the point that they could be regarded as being direct descendants of the market fairs and carnivals of the Middle Ages.
My one reservation is the assumption throughout the book that goods were purely functional before the middle half of the 20th century. Numerous studies of ancient societies show that goods have always played a role in defining personality. What has happened in the recent past is that this process has intensified.
There will be many people who will question the idea of devoting so much intellectual effort to such mundane activities. The French would disagree and in spite of all our new found wealth they still eat better and dress better than we do.
Brand.New won't tell you how to dress or eat better but it will give the reader a much greater insight into why shopping has become the new religion.
John Fanning is Chairman of McConnell's Advertising.
The exhibition to which these books are linked runs at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London from October 19th until January 14th 2001.