No logo? Sul plagio e la vita dei segni, da Melania Trump ai magazzini criminali del Medioevo

This paper critically reinterprets the discourse on branding, originality, and authenticity in contemporary consumer culture, challenging the anti-corporate stance of Naomi Klein’s No Logo. Rather than viewing branding as a tool of oppression and homogenization, the study explores its potential as a dynamic system of meaning-making, where the interplay between the real and the fake generates new aesthetic and cultural possibilities. The analysis delves into the concept of signatures in fashion, where authenticity is not an inherent quality but a constructed narrative mediated by symbols, repetition, and appropriation. By examining the magical language of branding, this paper investigates how commodities acquire an aura of uniqueness despite their mass production, complicating traditional binaries of genuine versus counterfeit. The discussion also engages with the paradox of originality in China, where the boundaries between imitation and innovation are constantly renegotiated, challenging Western notions of authorship and authenticity. Ultimately, the paper reveals how branding, far from merely enforcing corporate dominance, operates as a flexible and evolving structure that reshapes identity, desire, and social belonging.