"It's taken me years to find a chore coat with a cut that flatters my big tits but, now that I finally own one, I want to incinerate it. Such is the power of brand contamination; infamous data surveillance megacorp Palantir, has decided to bang a logo on a chore coat to sell as corporate merch. Chore coats are the traditional short denim or twill jacket of the 19th-century French working class. Palantir, however, is a company whose public words and commercial-in-confidence activities are inspiring local calls to have its contracts cancelled and its business banned."
"According to the New York Times, Palantir's head of strategic engagement wanted to create a merch offering that wasn't a bland corporate polo or vest. Thus the veste de travail, with its convenient pockets and famous styling on the likes of Paul Newman and Jeremy Allen White became the latest cultural victim of a company with a $325bn+ market capitalisation and whose chief executive's favourite motto is Dominate. The NYT reports in-house strategic engagers used to deferentially emblazon this word on hoodies and T-shirts before they decided to ruin my coat."
"This seems to be effective labelling for one reason, and that is knowing immediately who to avoid in a bar. Let me assure Palantir's reputational management team that bland corporate is not the sticky brand of a company whose very name comes from the seeing-stones manipulated by the dark lord Sauron in The Lord of the Rings as he attempts to take totalitarian control and, uh, dominate the lands of Middle-earth. With its reputation as the scariest company in the world, I'm disappointed the merch-makers didn't double down on a range of horned war-helms, branded black capes and wearable fog machines for that molten-fire-pits-of-Angband workplace-casual look."
A traditional French chore coat is described as a flattering garment for a large bust, but the desire to destroy it follows the addition of a Palantir logo. Palantir is portrayed as a data surveillance megacorp whose activities have led to local calls to cancel contracts and ban the business. The company is said to have created corporate merch to avoid bland apparel, using a veste de travail with pockets and recognizable styling. The branding is framed as effective for quickly identifying who to avoid. The coat is treated as cursed, and the merch is criticized for not leaning further into a sinister, militaristic aesthetic aligned with the company’s perceived reputation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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