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Have you ever noticed how some people buy expensive coffee only in trendy places, although they could make it at home for much cheaper (but without the coveted cup)?

It's not about the coffee. It's about walking into the office with that particular cup. To be seen by others as someone who can afford "decent" coffee from the place everyone's talking about. It's a status signal.

It's the same with branded clothing, where the logo is huge and visible from afar. You're not buying quality (a regular T-shirt is no less functional) – you're buying a signal. You're saying, "I can afford this brand, which means I'm superior to those who can't."

You can always tell when someone has suddenly become rich: they suddenly start decking themselves out in huge logos and branded prints from head to toe. They need to show the crowd that they can afford it. These people are like walking totems of luxury brands.

No one is born with a fear of logos. It's something acquired. It's a virus that someone spread, and you caught it.

In high school, I was hanging out with a couple of friends in my hometown. It was late afternoon, and we'd been skateboarding all day (there was no internet back then, so we were hanging out on the street—crazy times, right?). We were sitting in a friend's garage, and the car was parked next door.

I don't remember all the details, but the conversation boiled down to us taking one look at it and deciding it was just a regular, standard-shaped car. Gray. Boring. We were like, "Pfft, just a regular sedan."

But then one of the friends went to throw away his cigarette butt, saw that it was a BMW, and suddenly shouted: “Wow, look at this car! Holy shit!”

The brand made him think that way. Not the car itself. Not anything objectively different about its appearance or functionality. Just the logo. Just the knowledge that this thing "should" be impressive.

This is the virus in action. We didn't care about the car until we found out it was expensive. And then we started caring—simply because we were "supposed" to react that way.