The DOI matches its Crossref record; 1 of the 1 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Brands: A critical perspective
Abstract
This article proposes a critical perspectives on brands based on recent developments within Marxist thought. It argues that brands build on the immaterial labour of consumers: their ability to create an ethical surplus (a social bond, a shared experience, a common identity) through productive communication. This labour is generally free in the sense that it is both un-paid and more or less autonomous. Contemporary brand management consists in a series of techniques by means of which such free labor is managed so that it comes to produce desirable and valuable outcomes. By thus making productive communication unfold on the plateau of brands, the enhanced ability of the contemporary multitude to produce a common social world is exploited as a source of surplus value.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“In a context where the exchange value of many commodities derives from their brand value, this work is thus directly productive (Arvidsson, 2005; Land and Taylor, 2010).”
From Free Labour, Social Media, Management: Challenging Marxist Organization Studies (2015) · cites this paper as Arvidsson, 2005
In the citing paper
“Arvidsson's alternative to the labour theory of value is an idealistic and subjectivist concept of value - ethical value understood as 'the ability to create the kinds of affectively significant relations' (Arvidsson 2005, 270) - that ignores the reality of material inequality, precarious labour, and gaps between the rich and the poor”
From Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Economy and Critical Theory (2012) · cites this paper as Arvidsson 2005
In the citing paper
“When introducing the concept of brand value in an article that also mentions Smythe, Adam Arvidsson (2005, 238) immediately gives figures of brand values in US$, which shows that he thinks of value in terms of money (that signifies only the price of a commodity) and not in working hours (that signify the value of a commodity).”
From Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Economy and Critical Theory (2012) · cites this paper as Arvidsson 2005
In the citing paper
“and assumes that everything in the contemporary economy has become affective.”
From Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Economy and Critical Theory (2012) · cites this paper as Arvidsson 2005
In the citing paper
“The definition of brand value as 'the present value of predictable future earnings generated by the brand' (Arvidsson 2005, 238) is not only circular and therefore absurd (definition of value by value), but also makes clear that Arvidsson defines value only at the price level ('earnings').”
From Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Economy and Critical Theory (2012) · cites this paper as Arvidsson 2005
Citations
Cites
(2003) · doi:10.4324/9780203449813 · Cited by 116
Research works printed but not linked: 98
- Aaker, D., 1991, Managing Brand Equity
- Aaker, D., 1996, Building Strong Brands
- Abercrombie, N., 1998, Audiences
- Adorno, T.W., 1991, The Culture Industry, 53
- Aglietta, M., 1978, A Theory of Capitalist Regulation
- 10.1215/08992363-14-1-21 · DOI
- Barry, A., 2001, Political Machines. Governing a Technological Society
- Beck, U., 1994, Reflexive Modernization
- Beller, J., 2002, The Visual Culture Reader, 60
- Bengtson, A., EMAC Conference
- Bowlby, R., 2000, Carried Away. The Invention of Modern Shopping
- Brewer, J., 1993, Consumption and the World of Goods
- Castells, M., 1996, The Information Age
- 10.1086/209330 · DOI · Paper page
- Cochoy, F., 1999, Une histoire du marketing
- 10.1086/383439 · DOI
- 10.1215/08992363-12-2-291 · DOI
- 10.1108/03090569710162380 · DOI
- 10.1002/cb.54 · DOI
- Curtin, M., 1996, Making and Selling Culture, 186
- Dean, M., 1999, Governmentality
- Dichter, E., 1960, The Strategy of Desire
- Dyer-Withford, N., 1999, Cyber-Marx
- 10.1080/10253866.2001.9670363 · DOI
- Ewen, S., 1976, Captains of Consciousness. Advertising and the Social Roots of Consumer Culture
- 10.1086/209448 · DOI
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226924632.001.0001 · DOI
- Gardner, B., 1955, Harvard Business Review, 33
- Giddens, A., 1991, Modernity and Self-Identity
- Grant, J., 1999, The New Marketing Manifesto
- Haig, M., 2002, Mobile Marketing. The Message Revolution
- Hardt, M., 2000, Empire
- Hardt, M., 2004, Multitude
- Hochschild, A., 1997, The Time Bind. When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work
- 10.1086/339922 · DOI
- Interbrand, 2001, ‘The World’s Most Valuable Brands’
- 10.1177/146954050200200101 · DOI
- Kates, S.M., 1998, Twenty Million New Consumers! Understanding Gay Men’s Consumer Behaviour
- 10.1086/344427 · DOI
- Keller, K.L., 2001, Marketing Management, 10, 14
- 10.4324/9780203205808 · DOI
- Klein, N., 2000, No Logo
- Koehn, N., 2001, Brand New. How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers’ Trust from Wedgwood to Dell
- 10.1086/321948 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.4135/9781446217283 · DOI
- Lash, S., 1994, Economies of Signs and Symbols
- Lazzarato, M., 1997, Lavoro immateriale
- 10.1215/08992363-14-1-191 · DOI
- 10.1215/08992363-11-3-499 · DOI
- 10.4324/9780203495025 · DOI
- McAlexander, J.H., 1998, Servicescapes. The Concept of Place in Contemporary Markets, 377
- 10.1215/9780822383130 · DOI
- Maffesoli, M., 1996, The Time of the Tribes
- Manovich, L., 2001, The Language of the New Media
- 10.1525/9780520342668 · DOI
- Marshall, P.D., 2002, The New Media Book, 69
- Martineau, P., 1957, Motivation in Advertising
- Marx, K., 1973, Grundrisse
- Marx, K., 1990, Capital, 941
- Miller, D., 1998, A Theory of Shopping
- Miranda, J., 1998, Social Text, 16, 25
- 10.1177/1469540503003001929 · DOI
- Muniz, A., 2001, Journal of Consumer Research, 27, 412, 10.1086/319618 · DOI · Paper page
- Negri, A., 1989, The Politics of Subversion. A Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century
- Negri, A., 1999, Boundary 2, 26, 77
- 10.1086/209211 · DOI
- Olins, W., 2003, On Brand
- Peiss, K., 1986, Cheap Amusements. Working Women and Leisure in Turn of the Century New York
- 10.1080/10253866.1998.9670322 · DOI
- Peretti, J., 2001, The Nation
- Perrier, R., 1997, Brand Valuation, 13
- Pine, J.P., 1999, The Experience Economy. Work is Theatre and Everyday Business is a Stage
- 10.4159/harvard.9780674422483 · DOI
- Putnam, R., 2000, Bowling Alone. The Collapse and Revival of American Community
- Quart, A., 2003, Branded
- Reich, R.B., 1991, The Work of Nations. Preparing Ourselves for the 21st Century
- Ritzer, G., 1993, The McDonaldization of Society
- Ritzer, G., 1999, Enchanting a Disenchanted World
- 10.1017/CBO9780511488856 · DOI
- Sampson, J., 1997, Brand Valuation, 175
- Schmitt, B.H., 1999, Experiential Marketing. How to Get Customers to SENSE, FEEL, THINK, ACT and RELATE to your Company and Brands
- Schor, J., 1998, The Overspent American
- Sherry, J., 1998, Servicescapes. The Concept of Place in Contemporary Markets
- Shields, R., 2003, The Virtual
- Smythe, D., 1981, Dependency Road
- Stalnaker, S., 2002, Hub Culture, The Next Wave of Urban Consumers
- Tarde, G., 1902, Psychologie economique
- Terranova, T., 2004, Network Culture. Politics for the Information Age
- 10.1086/338213 · DOI
- Van Ham, P., 2001, Foreign Affairs, 2
- Virno, P., 2004, A Grammar of the Multitude
- Wasko, J., 1994, Hollywood in the Information Age
- 10.1080/030851400360532 · DOI
- 10.1177/026327601018006003 · DOI · Paper page
- Wolf, M.J., 1999, The Entertainment Economy. The Mega Media Forces that are Reshaping our Lives
- Wright, S., 2002, Storming Heaven. Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism
- ZŽižek, S. (1999) ‘You May!’, London Review of Books (18 March): 3-6.
- ZŽižek, S., 2005, Adbusters Magazine, 57
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Fuchs, C. (2012) · tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society · doi:10.31269/triplec.v10i2.443 · Cited by 212
Free Labour, Social Media, Management: Challenging Marxist Organization Studies
Beverungen, A., Böhm, S., & Land, C. (2015) · Organization Studies · doi:10.1177/0170840614561568 · Cited by 126
Purves, R. I., Stead, M., & Eadie, D. (2018) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph15020349 · Cited by 31
2. The Uses of Use Value: Marketing, Value Creation, and the Exigencies of Consumption Work
Foster, R. J. (2011) · Inside Marketing · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576746.003.0003 · Cited by 29
Metadata
- Authors
- Arvidsson, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Arvidsson, Adam
- ORCID
- Arvidsson, Adam
- Venue
- Journal of Consumer Culture
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2005-07
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 235-258
- ISSN
- 1469-5405 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-2900
- OpenAlex
- W2335393234
- Cited by
- 522
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 59 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 41
- FWCI
- 28.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Consumer Culture (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Economy and Marxism
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Marxism and Critical Theory
- Keywords
- brand, Marxist theory, immaterial labor, productive communication, brand management, surplus value, multitude, social bonds, identity, collective experience
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
