英国新闻听力 以商标取人（在线收听）

Brand Snobbery

THE HOST: Now here's a man who typifies the problem for marketing people. Style journalist and music presenter Neil Balman doesn't want any branded possessions. So much so that he is preparing a big fire to burn them all. And he's writing a book about it and there will even be a TV show.

Neil, that's quite a big bold statement to burn all your possessions. Is it a controlled form of anger that you have?

NEIL: I am very angry about the way I feel I have been manipulated throughout all of my adult life to be quite honest. You know I am basically the product of a generation that has been marketed to, from the cradle and probably to the grave. This is the result of it now. I am part of that first generation that has been marketed to so much and obviously I am an extreme case. But personally I have come to the conclusion that I have become addicted to brands, I have become so dependent on them to bolster my self-esteem, to identify myself to other people and obviously to myself. Literally, I can't walk out of the flat of a morning without having these thing upon me to make me feel good about myself and to project my personal identity to other people. Without them I feel completely naked.

THE HOST: When you became aware that you were becoming a person that you didn't want to become because of brand obsession, what specifically was it, I mean was it the fact that had to have clothes always with logos all over it, a certain kind of the product, was it the food you were eating, was it the bike you were riding around on? What was the stuff? Or was it everything?

NEIL: Put it this way when I came here today, obviously my brand burning is about to happen in a couple of days time so I still have my branded stuff on me, when I was dressing to come here, I was thinking what's going to make me feel the most comfortable, what's going to impress the person that's interviewing me the most? I put those things on accordingly. I put on a pair of nice Helmut Lang shoes, I put on a crisp pair of Lee jeans, I put on my Christian Dior storm coat. And these things made me feel, make me feel, they transport me to this other place, to this other kind of person. Sitting in these things today I feel more confident, I feel more business-like, I feel more capable of dealing with the matters in hand. And that kind of attitude permeates my life from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. And it's not just myself, it's the snap judgements that I make on other people that's the huge problem. As soon as I see people walk past me in the street I clock what they are wearing on their breast, what they have got on their shoes, what mobile they have, what computer they are using, and I make snap judgements on those people. Now I dare say that a certain type of person drives a BMW, a certain type of person drives a Volvo. That might be true. But I have just recently come to think how many meaningful friendships and relationships have I passed up on the basis of this crazy brand snobbery? And I think it is probably quite a few.

以商标取人

主持人：有位男士讲出了销售人员通常会深陷其中的麻烦。时尚记者和音乐节目主持人内尔·鲍曼不想再要任何名牌产品了。他甚至正要一把火烧掉他所有的名牌，还要就此事专门写一本书，制作一期电视栏目。

内尔，你说要烧掉你所有的家当，这听起来真是鲁莽。是不是一时气昏了头才有这种说法？

内尔：坦白讲，我的确很愤怒，因为我感觉自己在成年以后一直处于被操纵状态。我是一个时代的产物，我这一代人始终生活在营销当中，从出生起，也许一直到死亡，都是这样。所以我现在才会这么做。在我们这第一代生活被营销严重左右的人中，显然我是个极端的例子。但我自己得出了这个结论：我对商标着了迷，我得靠它才能建立起自信心，才能将自己区别于其他人，也区别于其它时候的自己。说实话，没有这些名牌我早上都没法走出公寓，是它们让我自我感觉良好，让我与众不同。少了它们，我觉得自己就像光着身子一样。

主持人：当你意识到，因为被商标所困，你变成了你不喜欢的样子，你具体指的是什么呢？我是说，你所厌恶的，究竟是你浑身名牌的事实，还是某一类特殊的产品，比如你的食物、你的自行车，又或者是这所有的一切？

内尔：这么说吧，我烧毁名牌的计划定在两天后，所以今天我来这里的时候还是把名牌穿在了身上。换衣服时我考虑的是，我怎么穿才能更舒服，才能让采访我的人印象深刻？于是我换上了这身行头，一双赫尔穆特?朗的高级皮鞋，一条起皱的Lee牌牛仔裤，一件迪奥的风衣。我感觉是这些东西把我带到了另一个地方，让我成为了另一个自己。穿着它们坐在这里，我觉得更有信心，更利落，更能胜任手头的工作。每天，从早上睁开眼到晚上睡觉前，这种态度充斥着我的生活。而这还不是最糟糕的，最大的麻烦是，我会对他人做出草率的判断。在街上，当人们从我身边走过，我马上就会注意到他们上衣前胸的商标，他们鞋子的牌子，手机和电脑的牌子，然后立刻给这些人下结论。现在，我敢说出，哪一种人会开宝马，哪一种人会开沃尔沃。我的判断也许是正确的。但是最近我开始想，基于这种疯狂的"以商标取人"的标准，我错过了多少有意义的友谊或是别的关系?我觉得肯定不少。