In the shoujo anime series Hana Yori Dango (”Boys Over Flowers”), the heroine declares herself a “no-brand woman” when faced with the elitism of her wealthy high school.

I saw the beginning of HYD, fansubbed, over five years ago but I still remember that turn of phrase.

You may have noticed that I’m very anti-advertising. In brief, I begrudge the mindshare it seems to demand. Branding is one of the many tools advertisers have in their arsenal. It’s the process of creating a heuristic - a shortcut - for the product you’re selling. A brand is thus the series of emotions and associations you have when the name of a product is mentioned.

All of this may lead you to ask: “But Lise, don’t you work for a marketing firm?”

In fact, I do (and one that specializes in branding, to boot). I’m not sure if the fact that it’s educational marketing makes it better or worse, on a relative scale. On one hand, college is arguably a more useful thing than a pair of overpriced name-brand sneakers. On the other hand, it’s a bigger expense, and the stakes are higher. I’m just a data monkey, but are there students out there who have been convinced to spend more than they can really afford on college by some research I did? I’m honest in my statistical methods and my reports. I homogenize my variances and cross my t-tests! - but I can’t influence what the client will do with the data once we’ve handed them the report.

Interestingly, outside of the physical realities of my day job, there are also entities who prey on emotion - luckily, I have more control there. I’ve been contacted a few times in the past month or so with solicitations for guest posts, links, and advertisements/sponsored posts from what at first glance seem like fellow bloggers. With ten minutes of research, however, I discovered I was hearing from a corporate entity whose blog is there to generate advertising revenue. (I won’t mention who they are because that would be giving them the free publicity they so desperately want - but bloggers should do their research before hosting a guest post from an unknown).

I shouldn’t even have to say this, but I do not accept guest posts, links, or advertisements from corporate entities. If I go to your blog and there’s not an about page with your profile - if there’s more ad space than content - if a Google search of your website’s name brings up only press releases and sponsored posts/reviews… you’re not worth my readers’ mindshare.

I blog because I love it. This blog is about my own financial journey, as crooked a path as it sometimes is. It’s also about my fiscal ethics, not coincidentally; and that does not include letting other businesses dictate what my blog is promoting.

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