Branded for life

By Paul Briand
pbriand@seacoastonline.com

In middle age, I’d like to think that we grew out of some habits that we annoyed others with as adolescents or teenagers.

For example, I don’t have the nervous laugh that I had as a kid. I’d get into nervy situations and punctuate my end of conversations with a quiet “heh, heh, heh.”

And I don’t say “um” nearly as much as I used to. “Um” on occasion is my equivalent of the ellipse I use when I write … “um” like the ellipse helps in my transition from one thought to another.

And I’d like to think that I grew out of the need to clothe, equip, clean and feed myself with big-name brand name products.

But in large part I still do.

I realized it the other night at a Tom Rush concert. He’s a folk singer of my generation, and I’ve always loved his guitar playing and singing voice.

I took special note during the concert of the make of his two guitars -- one an Epiphone and the other guitar what looked like a Martin. In fact, from Rush’s website I later found that the Epiphone is a Texan model and the other guitar is a specially made Martin knock-off.

Since I play guitar, I was curious.

I had this notion as a kid that if I had the stuff that the real good people used that maybe I could be like them, that I’d be real good too.

As a teen in the 1960s, I wanted to ski on Dynamic skis because my ski racing hero Jean Claude Killy skied on Dynamics. But they were pricey and difficult to find, so I skied on Rossignols. They weren’t Dynamics, but at least they were French skis like the Dynamics.

Jimmy Connors in his heyday played tennis with a Wilson T-2000. Boy, I thought, if I could get my hands on a T-2000 I could probably play just like Jimmy.

And weren’t those Converse basketball sneakers that Larry Bird wore during the championship years with the Boston Celtics? To think what I could have done with a pair of Converse.

And I don’t know that I’ve completely outgrown the thought of being able to run faster or jump higher or stop on a dime and give nine cents change with the professionals’ stuff.

I notice the Nike swoosh and the Adidas bars. If I watch a golf tournament on television, I’m curious whether the clubs are Nike, Taylor Made or Titleist and whether the balls are Nike, Titleist or Calloway.

I still take notice even today – as a skier with a cranky knee and an even crankier back – of who among the World Cup racers is skiing on what.

I took notice when American world champion skier Bode Miller switched from Rossignol to Atomic skis. As a long-time skier and user of Rossignol skis, I wondered if I should make the switch to Atomic.

I have this lingering notion that if Tiger Woods plays with Nike golf clubs and golf balls, I can play like him if I play with Nike golf clubs and golf balls. Or that I could sing and play as well as Tom Rush if I had an Epiphone guitar just like his. Or that I could ski as well and as fast as Bode Miller if I traded in my Rossignols for a pair of Atomics.

That’s what the advertisers and marketers want me to believe.

If I buy Emeril’s products at the grocery store, then I’ll cook as well as Emeril.

But you know and I know it never works out that way. We are what we are with the ability that we have no matter what the brand name … even though, just once, I’d like to play the same Rickenbacker 320 electric guitar that Tom Petty uses.