P6 - “mass-produced products were virtually indistinguishable from one another. Competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age – within context of manufactured sameness, image-based difference had to be manufactured along with the product.”

P6 - “familiar personalities such as dr brown, uncle ben, aunt jemima and old grand-dad came to replace the shopkeeper, who was traditionally responsible for measuring bulk foods for customers and acting as an advocate for products…a nationwide vocabulary of brand names replaced the small shopkeeper as the interface between consumer and product”

P10 'Not only was Marlboro dead, all brand names were dead. The reasoning was that if a ‘prestige’ brand like Marlboro, whose image had been carefully groomed, preened and enhanced with more that a billion advertising dollars was desperate enough to compete with no-names, then clearly the whole concept of branding had lost its currency.’

‘The ad would say something complimentary about itself or the person drinking it, and importantly, add a dollop of humor so the “we’re the best” claim wouldn’t be so boring or pretentious. Absolut would be a product that didn’t take itself to seriously. Its brand was nothing but a blank bottle-shaped space that could be filled with whatever content a particular audience most wanted from its brands: intellectual in Harper’s, futuristic in Wired, alternative in Spin, loud and proud in Out. The brand re-invented itself as a culture sponge, soaking up and morphing to its surroundings’

Info found at: https://www.johnniewalker.com/en-gb/the-world-of-johnnie-walker/the-story/

The story of Johnnie Walker begins - naturally enough - with the man who gave our whisky his name.

The year was 1819 and John Walker’s father had just died. A tough start for a humble farm lad, you might think, but there was always something special about John. A glint in his eye, a fire in his belly, a spring in his step perhaps.

The world in those days wasn’t the friendliest of places and John knew it. No time to grieve. There was a living to be made. 

Within the year, the family farm had been sold and the money used to set him with his own grocer’s shop in the thriving local town of Kilmarnock. It was a smart move. John had a natural gift for business.

He also had a genius for whisky. In those days, most grocers stocked a line of single malts, but they were never all that consistent. This wasn’t good enough for John, who started blending them together so his whisky tasted just as good every time. It proved an extremely popular addition to the inventory.

When John finally passed away after a full and prosperous life in 1857, he left his son, Alexander, with a very healthy business.

These were fast moving times. Britain was the pulsating heart of an Industrial Revolution that was set to change absolutely everything. In Kilmarnock, the railway had arrived, carrying goods to the great ships that were plying regular routes to the four corners of the world.

Alexander knew a golden opportunity when he saw one.

In 1867, he launched Johnnie Walker’s first commercial blend and called it ‘Old Highland Whisky’. He then made the astute move of engaging ships’ captains as his agents to carry his whisky wherever ships could sail. Before long, his unique blend was available around the globe.

Soon afterwards, Alexander began using the famous square bottle to reduce breakages and made sure much more of his whisky arrived intact at its destination. He also added the distinctive label, slanted at precisely 24 degrees, to make it stand out even further from the crowd.

In 1889, it was Alexander’s turn to pass on the Walker name, leaving the company to his sons, Alexander II and George - the former a master blender and the latter a master businessman.

In 1909, Alexander and George renamed their successful new range of whiskies after the colours of their distinctive labels. Johnnie Walker Red Label and Johnnie Walker Black Label were born.

It was around this time that the leading young illustrator of the day, Tom Browne, sketched an idea for a logo on the back of a menu during lunch. Alexander and George adopted the ‘Striding Man’ immediately. At a stroke, John Walker the Victorian grocer became Johnnie Walker, the Edwardian dandy.

By 1920, Johnnie Walker whisky was in 120 countries. As the century progressed, it became part of global culture: immortalised by songwriters and filmmakers, idolised by socialites and movie stars, enjoyed by statesmen and walking shoulder-to-shoulder with the great sportsmen and women of the age.

On 1 January 1934, John Walker & Sons was granted a Royal Warrant by King George V to supply whisky to the royal household. We still hold a Royal Warrant today.

By the end of the 20th Century, the pioneering Johnnie Walker Red Label and iconic Johnnie Walker Black Label had been joined by the pinnacle of the blender’s art, Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Our award-winning range continues to grow, with the addition of Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve and Johnnie Walker Platinum Label. 

Today, Johnnie Walker is the biggest whisky brand in the world and its slogan is has been adopted and embraced everywhere, as a rallying cry for progress, as encouragement in adversity, as a joyful expression of optimism and as the best piece of advice you’re ever likely to hear. 

Campaigns:

Joy Will Take you there

Info found at: http://evanwilliams.com/heritage.php


"There's money in those hills, boy." As a young boy, Evan Williams had an adventurous spirit within him. An immigrant from Wales, Evan embarked on a long but worthwhile journey to America. Upon arriving, he ventured through a frontier where fortunes were possible, eventually settling in the land among the Kentucky Hills.He became a farmer, building contractor, harbormaster, businessman, inventor and civic leader. Evan made a lasting impression on the community through his leadership.

Sure, Evan Williams was known as a jack-of-all-trades, but he seemed to truly master one. Yes, we’re talking about the man who had a knack for turning corn into smooth whiskey. And Kentucky grew a lot of corn. So Evan made the best use of this abundant crop that he could think of, distill it. Realizing the potential of his whiskey, he set up his distillery on the banks of the Ohio River. Today, a marker stands at that very spot officially declaring Evan Williams as Kentucky’s First Commercial Distiller.


Evan's personality was perfect for politics. He was outspoken, controversial, and a natural leader. With Williams around, the business of government didn’t have to be boring and dry. Certainly not dry. Despite rules forbidding the use of whiskey at meetings, Evan Williams always brought a jug of his finest along. Rumor has it that the jug was regularly confiscated. Funny enough, at the end of every meeting he still managed to leave with an empty jug of whiskey (turns out, he wasn’t the only one drinking it). You could say Evan put the party in politics.

To create a backstory and heritage to my brand, It is important for me to have a deep understanding of what Cuba is like since the revolution. To do this, I have watched a series of documentaries which look into modern Cuba.


The Cuban Revolution (1953–1959) was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and its allies against the U.S.-backed authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. The revolution began in July 1953, and continued sporadically until the rebels finally ousted Batista on 1 January 1959, replacing his government with a revolutionary socialist state. The 26th of July Movement later reformed along communist lines, becoming the Communist Party in October 1965. 

The Communist Party, now headed by Castro's brother Raúl, continues to govern Cuba today.The Cuban Revolution had powerful domestic and international repercussions. In particular, it reshaped Cuba's relationship with the United States, which still maintains a trade embargo against Cuba as of 2016, although efforts to improve diplomatic relations have gained momentum in recent years. In the immediate aftermath of the revolution, Castro's government began a program of nationalization and political consolidation that transformed Cuba's economy and civil society. The revolution also heralded an era of Cuban intervention in foreign military conflicts, including the Angolan Civil War and the Nicaraguan Revolution.

The official version of the Cuban government about the meaning of the shapes and colors of the cuban flag says that the blue stripes refer to the three old divisions of the island, the two white to the strength of the independentist ideal, the red triangle stands for equality, fraternity and freedom as well as for the blood split in the strugle for independence and the lone star symbolizes the absolute freedom among the peoples

Initial ideas for visuals were inspired by the Cuban flag. By incorporating aspects of the flag (colours, stripes, triangle, star) the nationality of the brand will be very obvious to audiences. The blue is complimentary to the golden brown liquid that will be in the bottle.

I experimented with how I could take each component of the flag and re-use it for the design of the bottle. The red triangle seemed like the best area to use as main component of the label. The blue and white stripes could be used to brighten the design up.

 If the rum needs to have heritage, it seems appropriate to create quite decorative type that fits with the heritage of Cuba. although this is fitting, it lacks the impact that is required for the small space on the label. Due to the story behind the rum, it is more appropriate to use rustic hand-rendered or screen printed styled lettering.

I began brainstorming from scratch with the rustic, screen printed style in mind. I began using the flag as it was with the addition of a textured layer to make it look screen printed.

By rotating the triangle 30 degrees  I have to a more balanced space to place the type and still incorporate the star. The rotation of the flag it wraps around the bottle in an interesting. The only issue with this is that it way cause any text on the back of the bottle warped and hard to read. 

Because of this, I chose to take all text from the bottle aside from the front space and make a tag info book which contains more information on the rum.

Instead I have used this space to place the most iconic symbol associated with the cuban revolution.
The addition of the slogan 'the rebels rum' really ties the concept behind the brand together.

The design lacked depth ad impact. To add depth and interest the the label, I have laser cut a stamp styled border to fit with the fact it is imported rum and has travelled.

In the white space on the back and of the label I saw this as an opportunity to bring through imagery of the brands heritage. A map of Cuba in this detail is fitting with the themes of the history of Cuba.

Info found at: http://www.absolutad.com/absolut_about/history/story/

They were aiming high; they had set their sights on the US market, the most competitive vodka market in the world, but also the most lucrative. The US consumes more than 60% of all vodka produced in the western world. Consumption patterns in the US showed that while overall spirits consumption was decreasing, consumption of premium vodka was increasing. The decision was made to market Absolut Vodka as a premium product with a long tradition, meant for a discerning consumer. It was the first time in this century that Sweden had exported any alcoholic beverage on such a large basis.

At first, the ideas centered around the traditional Swedish origins of the brand. There were a number of early suggestions including "Swedish Blonde Vodka", with pillaging Vikings on the label and "Royal Court Vodka", a frosted carafe. There was even a bottle wrapped in paper.

None of these ideas was felt to adequately communicate the product and its tradition. Marketing surveys carried out showed that the time was definitely right for a premium vodka. There was a clearly discernible consumer trend towards "white" spirits as opposed to "brown" spirits; clearer spirits were seen as being purer and healthier. There was a niche for premium vodka waiting to be developed. But the question of how to package and market it still remained.

 American experts were called in. They recommended modern-looking packaging with a bright, colorful label that would stand out on the shelf. They recommended a royal touch, mimicking so many of the "Czar themes" on the market at the time. The Swedish team was less than thrilled. Gradually, they came to realize that the answer was much the same as the concept created 100 years earlier by Lars Olsson Smith.

The breakthrough came when a bottle was finally chosen. Like many breakthroughs it came purely by chance and in retrospect seems almost too obvious.

 Advertising man Gunnar Broman was looking through an antique shop window in Stockholm's "Old Town" when he saw an old Swedish medicine bottle, a cultural icon was unchanged for more than a hundred years. The bottle was elegant, different, simple and very Swedish. In the 16th and 17th centuries vodka had been sold in pharmacies as medicine to cure everything from colic to the plague.

The choice was a stroke of genius. Several Swedish designers were given the job of helping the Absolut Vodka team further develop the bottle. It had been decided that there should be no label to hide the crystal clear contents. After much discussion and several prototypes the team came to the conclusion that some kind of colored lettering was required. Blue was decided upon as a the most visible and attractive color, the color that is still used today for the famous Absolut Vodka logo.

Absolut vodka has been around since the late nineteenth century, but the Absolut most of us know was propelled to fame by their iconic campaign with ad agency TBWA, which ran for a mind-boggling 25 years. If you were around in the ’80s and ’90s, chances are you saw the ads somewhere – plastered on a billboard, stamped on the back of a magazine. It didn’t matter if you were a legal drinker or an elementary school kid collecting them – you saw the ads, you admired them. This was the rare marketing campaign that was culturally appreciated. The ads were both visually adamant yet predictable and wonderfully simple. You remember them, don’t you? Each one featured a depiction of an Absolut bottle with some sort of theme, then the theme stated explicitly under the picture.

The ads were works of genuine artistry. Indeed, Absolut commissioned Andy Warhol and other prominent artists to design branded creations for the Swedish vodka. Absolut was the vodka for artists and musicians – rich artists and musicians – and those who aspired to live like them. The ads showed sophistication and luxury, but it was always a subtle luxury, a sort of alternative coolness. It was even referenced in Rent’s song La Vie Boheme, “To Absolut – to choice – To the Village Voice…” It was the vodka equivalent of a hippy in a Porsche: opulence with a soul, or, alternatively, corporate bohemianism. However you want to think of it, the ad campaign worked. Absolut was cool. U.S. sales jumped from 10,000 cases sold in 1980, to 4.5 million cases sold in 2000.

Grey Goose has never outsold Absolut in the U.S. according to Euromonitor, but it is coming progressively closer to doing so. Perhaps this is in part due to Goose gaining more cultural visibility than Absolut from the early twenty-first century to today. Absolut concluded their epic TBWA campaign, in part because, as Tåhlin told me when I recently visited the Elyx house, “all good things must come to an end,” because digitization was turning print ads progressively more obsolete, but perhaps, also because “artsy” advertising was no longer resonating with their target demographic. It’s no coincidence that Goose’s popularity coincided with the age of reality television. A new trend had started: the trend of obviousness, putting everything out on the table, and shamelessly showing off. Remember, this was a time when labels were king. To wear Abercrombie & Fitch and its offshoots was to don a status symbol. What was actually good about the clothes, the vodka, and Paris Hilton? No one really knew, but that wasn’t the point. You were paying for a name, not a valued product.

Info found at: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/jack-daniels-secret-the-history-of-the-worlds-most-famous-whiskey/250966/

The character of Jack Daniel's, the whiskey with the iconic black-and-white label on the equally iconic square bottle, is inextricably bound up in the distinctive character of Jack Daniel, the brand's founder and first master distiller. 

A physically diminutive man only five feet two inches tall, Jack Daniel devoted his outsized personality to the ideal of making a whiskey that, thanks to charcoal filtering and other factors, he could be proud to sell at a premium price. In the 1870s, Daniel had lots of competitors around Lynchburg, Tenn., in distilling whiskey filtered through charcoal. He wanted his whiskey to represent something special. So he used only the iron-free cave spring water on his property and the finest grains, mellowed his whiskey by filtering it through ten feet of sugar maple charcoal, and changed the charcoal out more often to produce a more consistent and better whiskey.

Until the 1950s, sales of Jack Daniel's grew almost entirely through word of mouth, boosted by occasional media attention. In 1951 Fortune published an article on Jack Daniel's that chronicled its growth and appeal to such disparate figures as the 1950 Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner, British prime minister Winston Churchill, and Hollywood director John Huston. A similar 1954 article in True, one of the most popular magazines of its day, put even greater emphasis on its being the favorite drink of entertainment celebrities, such as Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, and Ava Gardner. Sinatra called Jack Daniel's "nectar of the gods," and he sometimes wore a blazer with a patch for an imaginary "Jack Daniel's Country Club."

"The first modern ad for Jack Daniel's," says Nelson Eddy, the brand historian, "was a small black-and-white ad simply pointing people to read a magazine article."

What is especially interesting about Jack Daniel's beginning to advertise regularly is that demand then exceeded supply. "From the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, it was on allocation," Eddy said. "The sales representatives would literally go into an establishment and let them know how many bottles or cases they could have. When other companies would pull back from advertising, Jack Daniel's spent money on ads to tell people they couldn't get it."

The approach followed a 1955 one-page marketing plan drafted at the behest of Art Hancock, the brand's first marketing director, and Winton Smith, its first national sales director, who envisioned a future based on the heritage that Jack Daniel defined. The one-page plan, Nelson says, "codified Jack Daniel's as authentic, made by real people in an out-of-the-way place." Their ads are distinctive not only for what they say but also for what they show: "black-and-white photography of these people in Lynchburg, Tennessee, who aren't in smoking jackets, [but] work clothes they wear every day to make the whiskey."

Ever since that one-page marketing plan, there's been a singular focus on telling the lore and legend around Jack Daniel's. The stories use Lynchburg and its people but the takeaway isn't Lynchburg. It's those universal messages about pride in being independent, making your own way in the world, and standing for something authentic. The special role of Lynchburg in the Jack Daniel's brand experience led to opening the Jack Daniel Distillery to public tours. More than 200,000 people now visit the distillery every year.

While Jack Daniel's remained available only on allocation through the 1970s, popular culture continued to associate it with maverick independence. Paul Newman's antihero title character in the 1963 movie Hud drinks only Jack Daniel's, and rock musicians of the 1960s and 1970s gravitated to it just as Frank Sinatra did. No celebrities have been photographed more often holding, or next to, a Jack Daniel's bottle than rock stars Keith Richards and Slash. The biggest- selling song of 2010, "Tik Tok," by Ke$ha, includes a verse about brushing her teeth with Jack Daniel's. Nelson Eddy says, "When Hollywood scriptwriters want to use short-hand to show that a character is somebody to reckon with, they still put Jack Daniel's in their hands."

Jack Daniel's made a positive out of having to go on allocation, but it didn't want to frustrate large numbers of customers permanently. The challenge was to increase supply of an artisan-made product. Brown-Forman tore down the existing distillery and built bigger facilities on the same site, while the distillery employees continued to go about their work in the open air, walking on temporary wooden catwalks built around the still. Jack Daniel's then grew into a global brand, almost tripling sales from 1973 to 1986. To support this growth, Jack Daniel's invested more in its archetypal Lynchburg-focused advertising, which continued to resonate with consumers. It also began to engage in an active way with popular culture through sponsorships. The now famous Jack Daniel's barbecue competition dates back to the 1980s. In the 2000s Jack Daniel's began sponsoring motor racing teams in the United States and Australia. In September 2010 they began a campaign to establish a U.S. national holiday in honor of Jack's birthday, including a bus tour from Lynchburg to Washington, D.C.

For July 4, 2011 Jack Daniel's launched a sweeping, multimedia initiative to celebrate the independent American spirit. My favorite poster from this campaign reads, "56 men signed the Declaration of Independence, one man put it in a bottle."

My interest within advertisement is leaning towards how alcohol is advertised. Within my essay I bring up a few main things which cause adverts to be unethical. My practical will aim to be as ethically inclined as it can be. As it will be practically impossible to be completely ethical, I will aim to do my best and evaluate why I could not achieve a completely ethical design.

From my essay I have devised some rules and guidelines to which I will try to comply:

Do not diminish the audiences self-esteem.
Do not suggest or make false claims about your product.
Do not advertise through association.
Present logical reasoning.
High quality aesthetic can be forgiven if it does not break the previous rules.

Below are a few examples of alcohol advertisements which I believe are not as ethical as they could be.

This Skyy Infusions vodka advert advertises through association with sex. It is very common within alcohol advertisement for the use of sexual imagery as the two themes overlap. Many people go to bars and drink alcohol in hopes of having sex. Many companies use this to their advantage and suggest that the alcohol will help them in this matter. The use of the slogan 'Go Natural' is use of the technique 'weasel words'. The statement doesn't have any meaning towards the product. Vodka is a man-made substance that is bad for ones health. Suggesting that it is natural and therefore good for you is misleading.

Again the use females within a beer advert has connotations and suggestions of sex. By replacing the word 'fun' with a bottle of their product gives the audience an irrational belief that bud light is fun.

One of budweisers more ethically inclined campaigns is their designated driver campaign. It encourages the audience to designate a driver and drink responsibly. They have done this in a fun and creative way so as to not give the audience an 'unfun' belief of the Budweiser brand.

Chambord have developed a series of video advertisements that depicts their brand as a weird and quirky one. The advertisements do not make any statements about their actual product and use randomness to try to raise a general awareness of their brand. I would not say that this is particularly unethical but it is illogical.

Hendricks Gin have presented themselves in a similar quirky, weird way that suggests a much richer, old fashioned history. 

Baileys have targeted a female audience in this ad campaign. The use of an attractive female advertises through association which is illogical and deceptive. The slogan suggests that emotionally strong females drink Baileys. This tells the audience that they should drink baileys if they want to be 'a girl with a mind, a woman with atittude and a lady with class'. They have glamourised their product to such a ridiculous extent.

Building a strong brand seems to be very important with in alcohol advertising. Jim Bean give them selves a strong brand that has attitude with statements like the ones below. These statements suggest a blunt but honest personality which will resonate with the product.

A very common ad technique I have noticed is the use of advertising through associations. Below Glenfiddich have used imagery of a beautiful landscape with two men hiking. To their target audience this is a luxurious image which they would like to be more involved with. The phrase 'One day you will' gives the audience hopes that they can be associated with such imagery. This type of advertising is illogical as glenfiddich has nothing to do with hiking.

Russian Standard have highlighted buzzwords which suggest luxurious and possibly sexual connotations to glamourise their product. By placing their product in the spotlight they suggest importance to their product. It is hard to decide whether this use of semiotics is unethical. It is slightly deceptive, but the content of all adverts would be very dull if not for the use of semiotics.

A theme of class and superiority is painted in this advert for Haig Club. Despite it being David Beckhams company, he is still helping them advertise through association of him. Certain audience may be buying into the glamorous lifestyle that is suggested they can have with the product.

Info found at: https://www.wesayhowhigh.com/blog/article/why-are-brands-so-important

Firstly, what is a brand?

According to Wikipedia a brand is a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers." Simple? Well not really.

Whilst 'branding' may have originated as a way to tell one person's cattle from another by means of a long piece of hot metal with a special design at one end it has come to mean so much more. A 'brand' in the modern sense is built on expectation and experience. In its simplest form, it is the associations people make when they see, hear or think of your organisation or product.

What does a brand look like?

I keep mentioning the word 'brand' but what actually is a 'brand? A lot of people think that a brand is simply a logo or symbol. However, whilst a brand often includes a logo it is also defined by specific fonts, colour schemes, symbols, and even sound. All these elements are developed to collectively represent implicit core values, ideas, and even personality or tone of voice. It also includes how you present yourself to your customers - how you answer the telephone, the signage at the main entrance to your office or shop front, any promotional items or banners, the uniforms your staff wear, any promotional items, newsletters or banners that are used internally and externally. ALL these elements together form the basis of your overall brand.

In contrast, a 'logo' is the graphical element, symbol, or icon that, together with its logotype (text which is set in a unique typeface or arranged in a particular way) forms a trademark or identifying mark to represent your brand.

An example of a highly successful brand is Coca-Cola which belongs to the Coca-Cola Company. Brands were originally created by marketing and advertising people in large companies, such as Coca-Cola, to seduce customers - to sell products by creating and projecting colourful but simple ideas clearly, again and again. Their adverts first appeared in 1914 and helped promote Coca-Cola as a "delicious, refreshing, thirst-quenching" drink. Coca-Cola have subsequently been associated with the creation of Santa Claus' red and white outfit following a series of annual advertising campaigns during the 1920s and 1930s. The Coca-Cola Santa Claus created by artist Haddon Sunblom had its debut in 1931 in The Saturday Evening Post and is not dissimilar to the current image of a jovial, bon-viveur version of St. Nicholas. He was deliberately dressed in the Coca-Cola colours of red and white, an image which still resonates today and demonstrates the power of a recognisable brand and associated advertising.

The genius lay not so much in inventing the product, or even in manufacturing and distributing it, but in communicating a simple, single, freqently exaggerated statement about the product again and again. Coca-cola consistently promoted the 'quality' of their product as part of their brand values to convey confidence and 'trust' to the customers.

So, why are brands so important?

In a highly competitive and visual led market place the 'look', styling and tone of your brand identity is essential. It should reflect the personality, ethos and spirit of the organisation while visually appealing to a wide audience. The power of a brand derives from a curious mixture of how it performs and what it stands for. When a brand gets the mix right it makes us, the people who buy it, feel that it adds something to our idea of ourselves.

In a world that is bewildering in terms of competitive clamour, in which rational choice has become almost impossible, brands represent: clarity, reassurance, consistency, status, membership. In fact, everything that enables a human being to help to define themselves. Brands represent personal identity.

What makes a brand successful?

A brand's success relies on the repetitive delivery of a consistent message. It is typically designed to cause immediate recognition by the viewer, inspiring trust, admiration, loyalty and an implied superiority. Therefore, the most important aspects of creating and building a successful brand can be summarised as:

• Consistency
• Instant Recognition
• Desirability (Aspirational)
• Repetition.

Why do you need your brand to be consistent and repetitive? If you repeat something often enough people will believe the messages that you are communicating.

You can see that the Coca-Cola brand is powerful because they have successfully repeated the look and feel of the brand identity by using consistent fonts, colours and graphical elements such as the graphical swoosh throughout all their products ranges and advertising campaigns.

Creating and sustaining trust is what branding, above everything else, is all about. The best and most successful brands are completely coherent. Every aspect of what they do and what they are re-inforces everything else.

A successful, consistent brand identity will distinguish and give recognition to your organisation as well as creating a 'desirability' factor for existing and potential new customers, employees, supporters and stakeholders.

P43 -  ‘The way this works is very subtle. Most of the time, before seeing something in detail, you have a sense of what it is. Before understanding, you feel. And making people feel good about a brand, getting a positive emotion, is key. This is what makes the difference.’

‘p33 - Human attention has become our principal currency’

I have chosen to brand a rum as they have an existing reputation for rum. Cuba has a rich culture and interesting history. The style of Cuba could be used throughout the branding to reflect its nationality. Due to Cubas history, I should be able to tie my brand in with the cuban revolution in someway to create a sense of heritage around the brand. 

The Cuban Flag
"The meaning of the shapes and colors of the cuban flag says that the blue stripes refer to the three old divisions of the island, the two white to the strength of the independentist ideal, the red triangle stands for equality, fraternity and freedom as well as for the blood split in the strugle for independence and the lone star symbolizes the absolute freedom among the peoples"

Info found at: http://isreview.org/issue/84/balance-sheet-cuban-revolution

THE CUBAN Revolution was “one of the most important events in the history of twentieth-century Latin America,” writes Sam Farber in Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959: A Critical Assessment. In the years since, Cuba has inspired generations of Latin American and international leftists. Cuba has defiantly withstood decades of a barbaric embargo from the United States, and it has survived twenty years after the collapse of its major benefactor, the Soviet Union.

But Cuba is looking less like itself these days. Survival has increasingly meant adopting neoliberal-style reforms to stave off crisis, and the Cuban state has increasingly opened the country up to private investment and ownership. As The Economist recently observed, “Under Raúl Castro, Cuba has begun the journey towards capitalism.” The Cuba of old is disappearing into history, as are the octogenarian Castro brothers themselves. A new Cuba will soon emerge under new leadership for the first time in over half a century.

Cuba Since the Revolution is a historical evaluation of the five decades since the Castro regime took power. Farber refuses to join the chorus of mainstream voices calling to replace Cuba’s economic and political system with one fully oriented on the market. He also resists apologizing for the Cuban political system. Instead Farber approaches this task with an unfailing commitment to socialism from below, of the self-emancipation of ordinary Cubans. He warns against simply drawing a balance sheet of Cuba’s postrevolutionary achievements and failings:

Justifying political support on the basis of the balance of “good” and “bad” things a regime does is fraught with peril…. After all, did not Mussolini, as George Bernard Shaw liked to point out, make the trains run on time?… [F]or Marx and Engels, the progressive actions taken by political leaders…were worthy of support only when they facilitated the growth of the working class and its ability to defend itself and increase its independent political and social power.

Farber makes an important distinction between broad popular mobilization and enthusiasm and popular democratic control. In its early years, the revolutionary government was wildly popular among working and poor Cubans. It had a number of radical achievements to its credit, namely reforms in land, health, education, and social security; it had also repelled attempts by the United States to meddle in its domestic affairs. But Castro’s strategy for power consolidation had for years been to commit to as few concrete plans as possible, while making sudden moves in unexpected directions. This may have thrown off his enemies. As Cuban policy zigzagged, it was impossible for the Cuban population to do anything but play a supporting role.

This tendency eventually developed into single-party rule. As the state gradually took ownership over larger parts of the economy, the most important political positions were reserved for a select group of Castro’s coterie. The government assumed total control of the political, economic, and social life of Cuba.

Without unions or popular organizations of any sort that could present meaningful challenges, state ownership of the economy was of limited benefit to ordinary Cubans. The majority of the population did not make important decisions; instead a small ruling clique made decisions on their behalf. This had enormous ramifications, not just in the individual lives of Cubans but on the island’s economy as well.

Lack of meaningful participation resulted in a heavily top-down “socialist” model, which Farber captures with the phrase “strong thumbs, no fingers.” Cuba excelled at accomplishing homogeneous, standardized tasks. National vaccination campaigns, or hurricane evacuations, for example, were executed exceedingly well. But more nimble tasks have routinely failed, such as adapting goods, services, and public transport to meet the shifting needs of Cuba’s population. One area where this is felt acutely is agriculture. With unpredictable climate and diverse local conditions, a one-size-fits-all approach is considerably less useful. As a result, Cuba has actually seen small private sector and co-operative farms that are more productive than its state sector.

Lack of popular democratic participation has also meant that in Cuba the revolution brought uneven progress to already oppressed populations. When it comes to racism against Black Cubans, for example, Farber notes that political expedience rather than political or moral convictions drove the Castro regime. After the revolution, Castro initially made statements that promised a serious challenge to racism—in education, in the workplace, and so on. But he was forced to take much of this back a few days later after a backlash from white sectors whose support he was eager to secure.

Since then, revolutionary rhetoric has often confused progress with official denial of racial discrimination. The Castro regime’s insistence has been that any evidence of racism on the island is a remnant of the old ways, which will eventually die out. “This type of explanation tends to emphasize the role of individual prejudice,” Farber explains, “and minimize the role of ongoing institutional racism on the island.”

With no way to effectively challenge—or even discuss—institutional racism in “color-blind” Cuba, the results have been predictable. Today, a disproportionate number of Black men are incarcerated. In fact, Cuba’s incarceration rate of 531 people per 100,000 is far above the world average of 145 per 100,000, and is just a few places behind the United States (756 per), which is at the top of the global list. Black Cubans are also at a much higher risk of being stopped by police for identity checks. A recurring theme in Cuban hip-hop, particularly from the poorer districts of East Havana, is complaints of police harassment and poverty.

Similar dynamics emerged regarding gender politics. The official line in Cuba attributed any traces of sexism or homophobia to relics of prerevolutionary machismo. But according to Farber, the Castro regime frequently used machismo as a political tool. The results are often horrifying, like during the 1970s, when gay men were routinely rounded up and sent to “reeducation” (read: concentration) camps. During the “special period” of the 1990s—after the Cuban economy collapsed following the Soviet Union’s dissolution—women saw their traditional double burden rise to a triple burden. They worked their normal jobs, took care of the children and the home, and “volunteered” for another job.

Ordinary Cubans have benefited from a number of policies put in place after the revolution, such as improved health care. But the measure of Cuba since the revolution should not be how frequently the interests of ordinary Cubans coincided with that of the Castro regime. Rather, it should be whether or not they have the opportunity to openly and meaningfully express concerns, redress grievances, and work together to make decisions over the path Cuba will follow. As Farber writes:

There is no school or university where workers and other exploited and oppressed people can go and learn to practice socialist democracy except the one wrought through their own efforts with the inevitable trials and errors. They are certainly not going to learn and develop “democratic traditions” from dictatorships that prevent them from carrying out that indispensible learning.

Cuba Since the Revolution arrives at an important time. As anticapitalist struggle threatens to explode across the globe, it’s critical to have a clear idea of what we are struggling to achieve and how we ought to get there. Whether the Cuban Revolution is one we should emulate tells us much about what sort of struggle we should prepare for. With this book, Farber has made an important contribution toward that end.

For those familiar with Cuba, Farber’s book will offer deep and contextualized historical information, as well as analysis of important recent events. It is also an in-depth case study, which enables revolutionary socialists to develop a method of assessing whether a political program or regime should be supported. As Farber puts it, “[Our] view of revolutionary democracy or socialism from below assumes that people have the capacity and potentially the will to govern themselves and need no saviors or caudillos to protect them from their own errors as they learn and find their way to govern.”