No Logos

Bach Flower Essences are a sort of homeopathic flower essence made with brandy. As such, what you buy is just pure (cheap) brandy. Their medicinal quality is limited to what a few drops of brandy can do for you.

But bachflower.com have just issued a press release telling us how Naomi Klein, prominent critic of our globalised brand-oriented consumer culture, appears to be a big fan of Bach Flower remedies.

Via the New York Times, she tells us that,

“It’s very, very mild, especially if you dilute it,” she said. “I use it if I’m having trouble sleeping, or before a speech if I’m tense.”

But the contents of the bottle (a blend of flower essences, according to a spokesman for Nelsons, the British company that makes the Bach line) are not its real charm.
“I have no real sense that it works,” Ms. Klein said. “I think of it like a kind of talisman. I like the old-fashioned country-doctor packaging.”

I am not the first to notice the irony of her belief here. Bach Remedies are nothing but packaging. Their logo is the cure. Starting off in a little cottage in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell in Oxfordshire, these little bottles are now a major globalised quack industry.

Naomi Klein is the 11th top global intellectual as declared by Prospect magazine.