Eclipsed by the halo: ‘Helping’ brands through dissociation

Abstract

'Helping' distant others through 'Brand Aid' humanitarianism may be one of the most successful dissociational branding practices of all. In this short commentary, I argue that humanitarian 'helping' itself can become a branded commodity, as understood by Ibert et al. (2019). I draw on the dissociational framework to reconsider the concept of 'brand aid' as a link between ethical consumption, international development, and the commodification of humanitarianism. In brand aid, the 'ethical' action proposed by a consumption choice triggers the 'helping' of distant and disengaged Others. This results in reshaping the real or imagined ethical obligations across networks of solidarity, where dissociational symbolic value moves from consumption back to production and is deflected onto suffering Others. In these chains of value, the conditions of production become eclipsed by the halo of helping through consumption. Ethical consumption is becoming less possible, humanitarianism is increasingly commodified, and 'partnerships' meant to alleviate global suffering are becoming more complicated than ever before. Cultural economic geography can deepen our knowledge of how maintaining inequalities can produce surplus value through 'helping', and how this is embedded in strategic and habitual forms of dissociation from global ills.

Sites of contestation in global fur networks

“…By putting ethically problematic aspects of products, production and labour processes, and value distribution under the spotlight, consumer activism provides a route to politicize unfair and unsustainable models of production. Yet, despite some success, many of the social and environmental problems linked to GPN-orchestrated commodity production persist, indicating the limitations of conscientious consumerism as a transformative force (Bartley et al 2015; see also Richey and Ponte 2011;Richey 2019). In their analysis of consumers' role in shaping global production and the meaning of standards, Bartley et al (2015) have identified several constraints and contradictions of political consumption and contestation.…”

Positioning and ‘doing’ geographies of dissociation

“…In their commentaries, Bair (2019) and Richey (2019) took the opportunity to look through the lens of dissociation at two different empirical realms. These empirical explorations point at substantial possibilities to use geographies of dissociation as a fruitful heuristic in quite diverse empirical fields and beyond those envisaged by ourselves.…”

“…These empirical explorations point at substantial possibilities to use geographies of dissociation as a fruitful heuristic in quite diverse empirical fields and beyond those envisaged by ourselves. For example, Richey (2019) shows that dissociations are crucial in value creation practices of 'help brands'. Help brands create and exploit symbolic value as they associate the good feelings around humanitarian aid with the consumption experience.…”

“…The sustainable value of new conceptual ideas, however, is not their uniqueness in the sense of a brand value but their ability to open up new directions of thinking and theorizing, guide empirical investigations and reveal novel and relevant insights into social phenomena. Bair's (2019) and Richey's (2019) engagements with our work through their case studies provide fascinating examples of what shape this may take, and we look forward to seeing how colleagues might use, adapt, refine, critique or enhance the concept of dissociations in their own work. The value of 'geographies of dissociation', we believe, depends on whether these ideas resonate with other scholars and are able to make a meaningful contribution to future research.…”

“…This particular engagement with help brands unveils ‘a more diffuse set of practices that may result from mixed, unspecified, or even competing intentions. However, the effects of these practices can be seen as dissociating the brand, or its particular product, from negativity’ (Richey, 2019: 79). Thus, in this case, a geographies of dissociation perspective also helps better integrate the role of consumers and (political and ethical) consumption in GPNs and processes of value creation (cf.…”