Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Tania Bruguera: The products, the industrial products and the cooperations have turned into [inaudible] governments exactly because they have turned into a system that can and have therefore all of the infrastructure of a system of power if there are created almost even parallel governments, with structures of parallel governments to the political, [inaudible] governments or constituted in a specific territorial area. They have for example the same structures, they have security systems, they have intelligence systems, that means industrial espionage, they have even [inaudible] structures, they analize and regulate themselves like the system of power and they see which things function or not. And it has also happended that the economy has turned into something that has replaced politics in a lot of cases. It has been like a kind of metapolitics and we have also even some of the same problems which can have the governments if we have some cooperations [inaudible] of dictators, some which...; this is exactly the same structure that can have the political governments. And therfore it is so [inaudible] to replace the governments in the sense of that they have developped much faster and they renew in a faster way than the political governments. A political government could need five, ten, fifteen years or twenty years to change its system while a brand, a product or a company renews in three years. This means that it is a much faster system and much [inaudible] of change in its own structure of renewal and that is what I think what makes it more powerful in the sense of good or bad effective than some governments.

by Tania Bruguera

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Tavis Smiley: Are brands more powerful than government? I guess the answer is yes and no. Brands can be more powerful than governments if those of us who make up those governments, as we would say in my native country, the United States of America, "we the people." We the people make up the government. If we the people surrender that power to government to be more powerful than brands, then of course the answer is yes. Quite frankly, those of us who are this “we the people” are the most powerful brand in any particular country. It is the people who have the power. It’s not easy to get people to understand that, but people have the power. And so brands need not be more powerful than government. Government need not be more powerful than brands. The question is whether or not "we the people" use the power that we have to exercise who’s in control.

by Tavis Smiley

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Tegla Loroupe: Answertext will be available soon.

by Tegla Loroupe

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: I do not think that brands are actually more powerful than governments. But, I think what is really important is to look at the rising role of corporations and how they have increasing power than the governments. When you look now at the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations and only 49 are countries, and that to me shows a profound shift of power from the nation-state back to the corporation. What’s interesting though about the notion of brands is that brands are the mythology that corporations use to cover the iron fist that they host in their velvet glove. I think we need to really question the way that brands have supplemented mythology and really have helped to continue the privatization of our public space. I think brands are a way that we privatize our inner space. In some ways, I think we need to really be able to confront that brand hegemony head on as part of our struggles against corporate globalization. I also think that what is really important is to look at the way people are resisting branding, because I think that’s a powerful way that people are reclaiming that inner space, the social space, the cultural space and the mythological space; whether it's through culture-jamming like some of the work that you might see in the like Adbusters magazine, or just any time people take back public space. I think that’s a powerful way to really show that whatever the mythology that corporation creates around the inequity that it does that we don’t buy into the lie. We don’t buy into that vision for the world that they are creating. So, I don’t want a Kleenex moment. I don’t want to live in a Disney World. I want to live in a world where I have self-determination and the relationships I have with the people that I buy services from, that I have products and that I, in turn, also get employed by are just and equitable.

by Thenmozhi Soundararajan

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Tu Weiming: Many brands are perhaps more powerful than governments but in general, the governments are still extremely powerful and because the governments still have the control of the military of the politics. However, brands are the symbolic power which is emerging because of the globalization and the globalization of economy. In fact, many of the brands now are much more powerful than some nations. In fact, it is the idea that brands increasingly penetrate the masses and become receiving by increasing number of people, especially people in the Third World, and the overwhelming power of the brands indicate the power of the multinational corporations and these multinationals and these corporations eventually overcome the power of many of the governments. I was involved in a meeting organized by Denmark and I remember very vividly that the former Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau made the observation that one of the major concerns of him in the 21st century is precisely the power of various kinds of national corporations that have totally undermined the effectiveness of government organizations to be sure some of the major governments are still extremely powerful in extending their inference. Nationalism is still one of the most powerful ideologies in the world and yet the various kinds of brands that become totally strong ought to be considered seriously.

by Tu Weiming

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Udi Aloni: Wow, that's a weird event. I think that corporations and governments are collaborators. It's we're to divide the powers. Who is more powerful? The relation in power is very interesting. --Excuse me. Do you have something to put in the ears? I think it's wrong to put the brand as opposite to the government. They collaborate off each other and they support each other. And the movement between one to the other doesn't really change the use of power. So I would ask more, I think, how corporation and government are reinforcing each other, or repowering each other. And more how they also trapped into the same system, they created. And also there is something we act to them, like an organic creature. While each one of them also have it's own characteristic. In a way all this answer is my first answer and it's more practice than the true answer.

by Udi Aloni

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Valentina Melnikova: Nowadays the power of money is stronger than power of a government which is chosen by people or which they accept but since business works only for its own interests it supports everything what it considers an advantage and rejects what it considers bad. If people could elect such a government which would take in consideration both business which contributes to the prosperity of the society and people who demand social justice then the balance between the power of business and the power of people would be kept. It is up to people’s activism and comprehension how far they are free and independent and strong in their power. If it is a really democratic state social power will be stronger than business or governmental power.

by Valentina Melnikova

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Vesna Pesic: Answertext will be available soon.

by Vesna Pesic

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Viviana Figueroa: I think that in fact brands are more powerful than governments because of ...; brand are more powerful than governments. I think that brands are really more powerful than governments but it´s because there is a big quantity of consumers who are actually consumers of brands which make those more powerful and this situation can be reversed if every person in this world knows from who they should buy or from the companies which really respect the rights of the native people, from the companies which respect the employment laws, from those companies which really make a fairer world and not those companies for which the only thing they consider as their principle is, let´s say, accumulating wealth and not watching over the well-being of humanity. Therefore it´s that the more powerful brands are than governments, it´s the responsibility of each of us to reverse this situation by making that these brands aren´t so powerful but quite the contrary, that really the governments which are representatives of the countries achieve [inaudible] a fairer situation for everyone.

by Viviana Figueroa

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Wim Wenders: Not yet, I would say, but they are certainly on the way to becoming real powers. Why? We are watching the constant and unstoppable rise of the dominance in the weight of the image both in the sense of imagery or pictures of a visual language and in the sense of well, the brand identity. People today and so much more in the future identify easily and willingly with brands, governments, nations, countries, are brands as well of course. “Made in Germany”, “The American way of life”, “The French kiss”, “The English humor”, but it is increasingly difficult to identify with governments. They’re too demanding, they want your taxes, and they send you to war. Brands are much more giving; they promise you a good life. Once you buy them they give you many things in return-- security, fun, pleasure. If the brand is too expensive for you, you can still just wear the T-shirt with the logo. It’s amazing how many people on this planet wear clothes that have brands printed all over them. Brands give them a feeling of identity, of value, of uniqueness and distinctiveness. So I guess it will only be a logical that brands eventually would have political power too. Because people elect them on their own free will and images and therefore brands too are attracted to power. What is the most powerful and potent industry in the world today, what do you think? Weapons? The arms industries? I don’t think so, that is the past or at least will have been the past soon. The true weapons of mass destructions of the future are images and I suppose the entire industry with all its aspects the entertainment industry is already today the world’s biggest industry. So I convince myself more and more brands will be the future governments. Countries will [audio ends].

by Wim Wenders

Sep 9, 2006 10:00:00 AM cite

Yungchen Lhamo: I think at some stage brands are more, because wherever we go and wherever we see there are so much of the commercials. And in other hand if the government said, not allowed to do or certain people can come to the country and then this is also can be there is the power. I think there is both side.

by Yungchen Lhamo