The Bold Blandness of Brandless™
I spotted the first ad for Brandless on Facebook, which is where I’m bombarded by most ads nowadays.
Perhaps something in the Facebook algorithm identified me as a potential Brandless buyer. Enticed by the ad (and admittedly curious why a friend had liked it), I clicked through and found a company selling “better for you essentials” at prices that seemed too good to be true.
Organic maple syrup: $3. Organic peanut butter: also $3. Packs of paper-free toilet paper: another $3 item. Notice a trend here?
Despite its nod to the generic brands of yore, Brandless is still very much a brand.
Every product on Brandless’s website sells for $3. The company claims it can do this by removing the “BrandTax” most consumers pay to buy goods that are advertised to them. (Most children who grew up in homes where money was tight like I did probably recall a similar argument being made by their parents when they swapped the always-enticing Froot Loops for the bottom-of-the-shelf and bland-bag store brand “Fruit Spins” or similar. “It’s the same thing but without the fancy packaging,” they said. I never did buy that argument and still don’t.)
Despite its nod to the generic brands of yore, Brandless is still very much a brand. Brandless itself is…
