Bonfire of the Brands

What do you do when you wake up and realise that your life has been an empty pursuit of the superficial and the trend-driven? That your identity and value systems are based upon a brand hierarchy of your own creation?

You take a stand. You burn them. Burn them all!

On 17 th September 2006, in Finsbury Square, East London, Neil Boorman did just that. The ones that wouldn't burn, or that he couldn't burn, he destroyed with a sledgehammer. The event was the culmination of a long process of self-examination, and of the brand-dominated world in which we live, recorded in a popular and controversial blog online.

As a product of a generation that has been sold to since birth Neil examines the social, historical, economic and psychological ways in which brands have gripped our society, as well as documenting his personal trials and tribulations as he tries to live a life without brands.

How has he coped without a hit of his Crackberry?

Does he feel naked without his Nike, Gucci, and, of course, Marlboro? And how does he make his own toothpaste?