Rebranding Nazi

There are many words in the dictionary that have certain connotations that are not, shall we say, pleasant. The ‘N-word’ comes to mind.

We’ve struggled for years trying to find an alternative to this insulting reference to the now African-American (which if you think about it is all of us) politically correct title.

Advertising is all about ‘branding’. Branding is a set of marketing and communication methods that help to distinguish a company or products from competitors, aiming to create a lasting impression in the minds of customers. The key components that form a brand's toolbox include a brand’s identity, brand communication (such as by logos and trademarks), brand awareness, brand loyalty, and various branding (brand management) strategies.

Now the organizations touting white supremacy, intimidation, hate mongering are using brands that already carry fear and loathing. So why don’t they change their brand?

Companies like tobacco manufacturers feeling the pressure of medical accounts of cancer and bad stuff associated with smoking changed their corporate identities to some unpronounceable words like the pills to save you from the worst threat of dying.

Even stock car racing which was associated with rednecks southerners expanded their audience by branding itself as the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Acronyms started to replace long names trying to identify a company or organization or club, etc.

Nazi stood for ‘National Socialist German Workers’ Party’. National is encumbering of the entire nation and it defined Germany as that nation. Workers included everyone who had jobs and party is just fun. The word ‘socialist’ stands out to define what the real cause was.

Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterized by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production, as well as the political theories, and movements associated with them. Social ownership may refer to forms of public, collective, or cooperative ownership, or to citizen ownership of equity. There are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them. Social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms.

Socialist economic systems can be divided into non-market and market forms. Non-market socialism involves the substitution of factor markets and money, with engineering and technical criteria, based on calculation performed in-kind, thereby producing an economic mechanism that functions according to different economic laws from those of capitalism.

Non-market socialism aims to circumvent the inefficiencies and crises traditionally associated with capital accumulation and the profit system. By contrast, market socialism retains the use of monetary prices, factor markets, and, in some cases, the profit motive, with respect to the operation of socially owned enterprises and the allocation of capital goods between them.

Profits generated by these firms would be controlled directly by the workforce of each firm, or accrue to society at large in the form of a social dividend. The socialist calculation debate discusses the feasibility and methods of resource allocation for a socialist system.

The socialist political movement includes a set of political philosophies that originated in the revolutionary movements of the mid-to-late 1700s, and of concern for the social problems that were associated with capitalism.

In addition to the debate over markets and planning, the varieties of socialism differ in their form of social ownership, how management is to be organized within productive institutions, and the role of the state in constructing socialism. Core dichotomies include reformism versus revolutionary socialism, and state socialism versus libertarian socialism.

Socialist politics has been both centralist and decentralized; internationalist and nationalist in orientation; organized through political parties and opposed to party politics; at times overlapping with trade unions and at other times independent of, and critical of, unions; and present in both industrialized and developing countries.

While all tendencies of socialism consider themselves democratic, the term “democratic socialism” is often used to highlight its advocates’ high value for democratic processes in the economy and democratic political systems, usually to draw contrast to tendencies they may perceive to be undemocratic in their approach. “Democratic socialism” is frequently used to draw contrast to the political system of the Soviet Union, which critics argue operated in an authoritarian fashion.

So much for a history lesson on social dysfunction let us get back to the point of disparaging offensive words. Words do have meaning.

There are these hateful groups of skinheads or punks or alt-right or fascist or whatever you label them, as ‘Nazis’ even though the history books say that tribe was defeated in WWII. Germany has turned away and moved on but maybe the south hasn’t?

Like college football teams or soccer or basketball, fans associate with team names. They identify with logos on clothing and cheer and can be fanatical about these associations with people they will never know but watch on television. Young girls with pom-poms will fan the frantic exuberance and there forms a following.

Now teams of rough and ready sports have names (brands) like ‘Tigers’ or ‘Raiders’ or ‘Pirates’ or ‘Chargers’ or ‘Dolphins’. Not so sure about that last one, but the point is aggression and confidence following a powerful brand.

Would you play against a team called the ‘Nazis’?

My thought is that we change these hateful words to something different.

Replace the ‘Ku-Klux-Klan’ name with the term ‘Snowflakes’. Substitute the brand of ‘Nazi’ with ‘Cupcake’.

Stop and think about it.

How would the news media report these rallies?

But you have to admit; the cupcakes did have some sharp uniforms.