Personal branding began as a substitute for stable employment during downsizing

Evidence

Well, exactly: normal humans don’t have ad budgets, which is why the whole concept seemed absurd to our 1990s brains. This was, remember, well before Facebook, let alone TikTok or Substack. Even reality television wasn’t yet up and running to pick wannabe celebrities out of obscurity. In short, the idea of personal branding began as a ruse—a transparent sop being pitched in lieu of actual jobs or a stable income by companies and their management consultants, drunk on the cost savings and stock-price inflation born of sweeping downsizing and outsourcing. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 158

Categorization

• SEED: Angles toward an essay on how ‘personal branding’ emerged exactly when corporate loyalty vanished — the outsourcing generation told to market itself as its own replacement for job security.