Brands are now made (at least re-made), altered, twisted and destroyed on the street. The building blocks of a brand are artificially created, and then manipulated by appropriate advertising stunts. However, this process is less and less effectivecertainly in the developed world where we, as professional consumers, have become accustomed to "spin".

The fact that brands tell stories is fairly well known, the fact that many of these stories are not created in an Ikea styled room by bright young things is less well acknowledged.Of course I would not dispute that the building blocks of a brand are artificially created, and then manipulated by appropriate advertising stunts. However, this process is less and less effectivecertainly in the developed world where we, as professional consumers, have become accustomed to "spin". I would argue that brands are now made (at least re-made), altered, twisted and destroyed on the street. Rumor and internet opinion, voiced by a variety of different sources are powerful, unregulated forces largely beyond the control of big business.

The 21^st century consumer is intrinsically "spin" aware, and in general does not trust "The Corporation". I am not saying that we are now immune to well-devised brands and advertising messages, far from it, but we are now more willing to question, and more likely to base our judgement on a portfolio of information sources that we trust.

I was waiting in the security track recently at London Heathrow when a group of passengers in front of me struck up a conversation about a BP advertisement well positioned on the wall directly in front of us. The advertisementone of those to be found wherever the business travellers' eye fallswas making a claim about BP's emissions. The passengers were laughing about the vagary of the message, and the fact that only one of their party could read the small print. To paraphrase their response: "Who do BP think they are kidding, beyond petroleum, sure!" The passenger with glasses who could read the small print added that "Surely their emissions are down because of a higher global demand for gas over and above petroleumanyway aren't their competitors doing exactly the same thing?" .

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