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In Chapter 9 Klein begins her examination of the economic side of the age of the superbrand. Her specific focus in this chapter is the increased use of low-paid foreign labor by large multinational corporations.

According to Klein, “brand[s] [. . .] have begun to see their work as something that occurs not in conjunction with factory production but in direct competition with it” (195). What this means is that many major companies have divested themselves of the actual process of making their products in order to concentrate on marketing and branding. By shifting labor to cheaper international markets, brands can re-allocate resources from manufacturing to advertising and promotion. The result is the creation of a new global workforce paid in starvation wages and denied basic rights like adequate healthcare, safe working conditions, and union representation.

Klein calls Nike the “prototype for the product-free brand” in that it chose at an early stage to outsource its manufacturing to foreign subcontractors in Japan (198). A bevy of other companies, from Nike competitors Reebok and Vans to Sara Lee and Levi’s, have since followed suit (198-202). Klein then moves on to examine the central vehicle of this radical change in the corporate world: the so-called free trade zones (FTZs) and export processing zones (EPZs) that superabound in countries like Mexico, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines (202).