Brave New World of Economics

When the brands discovered luxury, the world shone in unexpected beauty. Where brands were initially associated with quality and price, from now on it was about style, status and refined aesthetics. The Marche galleries surpassed the artists' galleries in their creativity and artistic elegance. The old-style gallerists were amazed at how the showrooms of the brands outstripped them. Just as scientists worked for the brands and achieved top form, so did the creative minds of the new era. Interior architects and designers made their dreams come true. The interior of the brand spaces draws on secular-artistic motifs as well as on sacred ones. Brands became art and art learned from the success of brands.

The cities flourished. The old-style main streets were transformed into boulevards of fine styles. The economic success was obvious. City marketing experienced a paradigm shift. In the past, the sights of the city were the focus. Now it was recognized that this was thought to be short-sighted. What is the value of a tourist? But not that he looks at monuments and old churches. Its worth is what it leaves to buy in town. The mayor of the city of Heidelberg, Reinhold Zundel, came up with the bon mot: "If you shake the ten letters HEIDELBERG long enough in a different order, you get MONEY HERE!" Marketing leaders realized that the ancient landmarks are the lure that draws people to the modern artworks, the galleries of merchandise.

Competition among cities increased.
They offered so many unique things that people were astonished .

• Paris: Tour Eiffel, Louvre, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Prada, Lacoste, Pierre Cardin, McDonald's, Balmain, Benetton, Bulgari, Max Mara, Starbucks, Bruno Banani
• Milan: Dom, Scala, Armani, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Max Mara, McDonald's, Bruno Banani, Gucci, Wonderbra, Yummie Tummie, Pierre Cardin, Lacoste
• London: Tower, Thames, Tom Tailor, Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton, Timberland, Armani, Prada, Max Mara, McDonald's, Yummie Tummie, Starbucks
• Berlin: Brandenburg Gate, Tom Tailor, Starbucks, McDonald's, Escada, Esprit, Prada, Armani, Vanzetti, Mandarina Duck, Bruno Banani, Heidi Klum Intimates
• Wolfsburg: Automuseum, Diesel, Desigual, McDonald's, Starbucks
• Zurich: Zwingli, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein, Bruno Banani, Benetton, Bulgari, Lacoste, Lanvin, Armani, Prada, Nina Ricci, Mc Donald's, Starbucks, Vanzetti
• New York: Statue of Liberty, McDonald's, Starbucks, Louis Vuitton, Nina Ricci,
  Prada, Armani, Marc O'Polo, Max Mara, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Sacco & Vanzetti. [1]

The unpleasant strangeness, the unfamiliarity when you came to a new city, gradually gave way. Familiarity set in. The world became compliant. Initial criticism fell silent. Busy comments withdrew to feuilletons as the number of readers decreased. There is also said to have been someone who implored the privy councilor Goethe: "You really don't travel to see and hear the same thing at every station." [2]

conformity

Let's stay with the cities for a moment. In the industrial age, they have grown to an unimagined size - and in the process have each developed their own beauty and urbanity. Representative magnificent buildings, spacious boulevards, parks and promenades; it became increasingly attractive to live in the city rather than in the country. First pedestrian zones, gastronomy, weekly markets: the markets were fed with local products. The local trade shaped the range of goods with all its peculiarities.

In the advancing brand age, on the other hand, individuality became a commodity. The same leveling that capitalists like to accuse the socialists of is now practiced by them themselves. Pedestrian zones with an ever more uniform range of brands, uniform architecture of the department stores, conformity of the retail chains, shopping malls like decals of the same standard. If you walk through a shopping mall, you can hardly distinguish whether you are in Berlin, Rio, Chiang Mai, Tokyo or Tbilisi. In the international airports we already find the monotony of the brand world in its purest form. The same brands - worldwide.

They are unaffordable for 90 percent of the world's population, but also completely overpriced for the other 10 percent. Is that an intelligent use of resources? Can't we imagine a more original future?

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[1] Forgive the irony of putting the two wrongly convicted New York anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti in the same category as the brand names.

[2] JW v. Goethe, letter to H. Jacobi, August 18, 1792