Co-branding fascism
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook | Air Mail Weekly | January 18, 2025
(Santa Fe, NM) - When a cozy and intimate inauguration happens in the Capitol rotunda, it will be the most co-branded in history. Elon, Mark, Sam, Sundar, and Jeff will be there. So will the TikTok CEO and Apple’s Tim Cook. All made millions in donations to Trump’s inauguration fund, interesting now that outdoor activities are safely free of the unwashed masses (slush fund 2.0). No more crowd sizes to potentially offend Monsieur, the Capitol rotunda his temporary country club / television studio; the cumulative in-rotunda wealth will be immense, each CEO representing their brand front and center for a global broadcast audience. But the Broligarchy It Girls’ dance with fascism is already ugly.
First things first. Trump’s second administration is fascist. From his “dictator on day one” promise to the statements he made in his inauguration address, as well as anti-democratic mass deportations, and everything in Project 2025. The case is more than made.
History already has lessons for us. Did you know that Hugo Boss was an early adopter/supporter and manufactured the SS uniform? That Allianz, Audi, BMV, Lufthansa all partnered in the Nazi war manufacturing effort? That Bayer experimented on concentration camp prisoners? Or that German subsidiaries of Ford Motors engaged in vehicle and war production? Coco Chanel herself was a Nazi collaborator, protected by Winston Churchill after the war, relaunching her namesake couture brand in the mid-1950s. Segue to present day, LVMH’s Bernard Arnault was amongst fellow billionaires at the inauguration and Ivanka Trump was decked out in Serena Joy-esque Dior (her father in law’s Ambassador to France appointment makes even more sense). So, it appears that tech, banking, big pharma, automotive, airlines, and fashion conglomerates are amongst the Vichy-fied brands and billionaire faces ready to score big in America.
While we imagine Marc Andreesen, Victor Orban, Tucker Carlson, and Giorgia Meloni getting pre-broadcast glammed in Statuary Hall, their pro-autocracy brands already realized, we think about the personal brand fails of Carrie Underwood, Snoop Dog, and an odd, right-wing iteration of The Village People. We wrote to Carrie last week, sharing the story of Leni Riefenstahl; a creative who became Hitler’s filmmaker and forever infamous footnote in world and WWII history. Snoop and The Village People have already run their reputations onto the rocks at the Crypto Ball, while Carrie’s notoriety became reality as soon as her first note dropped. It’s safe to say that their respective brands are forever changed; brand perception and brand sentiment willingly redirected, probably for a lot of money. But the ROI is less than zero. And historic. Take note business of opera artists, professionals, and brands.
Returning to oligarchs in attendance, Zuckerberg and Meta went full “masculine energy” to please Trump in advance, dismantling its DEI policies and resetting company culture overnight. Elon is effectively our trans-hating, nazi-salute-throwing-child-on-ketamine co-president with a White House office. Bezos might be angling to co-opt the US Postal Service (look at Canada). And before the inauguration, TikTok dear-leadered hard, as the app went offline and online over the course of 12 hours. These are just a few examples. My recommendation? Watch Turning Point: The Bomb And The Cold War on Netflix, to learn how the Russian oligarchy was established and grown under Putin. Illuminating.
A new, subscription-based Opera Innovation Substack launches in February. Coming soon: a multi-part discussion of what US-based business of opera brands must do in our “brave new world” reality. Stay tuned and stay bright.
PS: Robert Reich’s Instagram post is required reading.