Jonathan Schroeder brings together a curated selection of papers on brands and branding, originally published in the interdisciplinary journal Consumption Markets and Culture. Organised into four perspectives - cultural, corporate, consumer, and critical - each section contextualised by a new introduction from leading brand scholars. This thought-provoking collection will be of interest to scholars of marketing, consumer behaviour, and sociology and anyone interested in the role brands play in our lives and culture.

Introduction Part I : Cultural Perspectives 2. Brand Culture and Branded Workers: Service work and aesthetic labour in fashion retail 3. Packaging as Vehicle for Mythologizing the Brand 4. Just doing it: A visual ethnographic study of spectacular consumption behavior at Nike Town 5. Commentary: The cultural approach to branding Part II: Corporate Perspectives 6. Transnational Organization and Symbolic Production: Creating and managing a global brand 7. Retail Stores as Brands: Performances, theatre and space 8. Learning to say g'day to the World: The development of Australia's marketable image in the 1980s 9. The Technology of Branding Part III: Consumer Perspectives 10. Consumer-Brand Assemblages in Advertising: An analysis of skin, identity, and tattoos in ads 11. Consumer Multiculturation: Consequences of multi-cultural identification for brand knowledge 12. The Role of Commodified Celebrities in Children's Moral Development: The case of David Beckham 13. Limits of the McDonaldization Thesis: eBayization and ascendant trends in post- industrial consumer culture 14. Commentary: The consumer perspective in branding Part IV: Critical Perspectives 15. Aesthetics Awry: The Painter of Light(TM) and the commodification of artistic values 16. Consuming the "World": Reflexivity, aesthetics, and authenticity at Disney World's EPCOT Center 17. Consuming Caffeine: The discourse of Starbucks and coffee 18. A Compr(om)ising Commodities in Consumer Culture: Fetishism, aesthetics and authenticity