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It bothers me. Not totally for the same reasons, but for something you touched
on.
To me, a 'brand' is a marketing term that is supposed to imply repeated product
quality and style that customers are loyal to. In the 70s I automatically
bought the latest Led Zeppelin albums, ignoring any reviews, because I knew it
was something I was going to enjoy. In today's parlance they are (were?) a
brand, but we didn't think of it that way. We just saw it as entertainment.
Today, calling them a 'brand' cheapens and implicitly commercializes it to
where it's intended to be for the record label's benefit, not mine.
People who post on social media also consider their posts to be their personal
'brand'. I despise the way commercial terms like this have infiltrated everyday
society. I'm not here to arbitrarily consume content for the benefit of some
soulless financial entity. I'm also not somebody's customer. I'm just trying to
kill time, entertain, and/or educate myself. But this is where we are, or as
another band in the 70's put it: "Welcome to the machine"...
Mark
On 7/25/26, 11:20 AM, "Swprograms on behalf of John Figliozzi"
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> on behalf of [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Maybe it’s just an old age mentality, but I find this effort to establish new
terminology for existing products annoying and just unnecessarily stylistic. In
an age when an organization like the BBC is pressed for revenue, it seems a
waste of time and resources to engineer a whole new way of looking at what are
essentially the same things. Maybe they think it makes them more attractive to
younger eyes and ears (yeah, this is probably it), but I really doubt that’s
true. Most of the surveys I read indicate that trying to attract younger people
to traditional media ends up a loser and that many of them eventually embrace
the stuff that the BBC et al are trying to sell as they mature and get older
with more experience. I can’t help but perceive the chase for advertising
dollars as the culprit here which only ends up confusing "public service” with
the pursuit of a mass audience. They are two separate things that require
separate sources of revenue if their unique missions are to be preserved, but
try explaining that to the younger executives running these organizations
today. Most of the people the BBC or NPR are hiring come from the commercial
side and fail to recognize the subtle but real difference. ABC (Australia)
Radio National seems to still get it, however.
John Figliozzi
> On Jul 25, 2026, at 6:32 AM, Rob de Santos <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>
> I noticed the same thing. Initially, I thought it was confusing. I suppose,
> using the same logic, book and song titles are now "brands".
>
> --Rob de Santos
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Swprograms <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>> On Behalf Of Richard
> Cuff
> Sent: Friday, July 24, 2026 4:32 PM
> To: Internet radio discussion <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>>; Shortwave
> programming discussion <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>>
> Subject: [Swprograms] BBC Global Minds user survey: programs are called
> "Brands"
>
> Interesting terminology -- I just went through a survey in the BBC Global
> Minds community regarding my awareness of various BBC programs offered on
> the World Service, Radio 4, and BBC World News.
>
> What I would call "programs" they called "brands".
>
> Welcome to the 21st century, I guess...
>
> Richard Cuff
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