Battle of the Brands

     It has happened again. Another teenager lost their life last Friday in the Orchard Park Shopping Center in Kelowna. After a new shipment of clothes came into American Eagle last week, a war broke out between young teens trying to buy new shirts that looked extremely similar to the ones they were wearing. But what was different about them? Well, the new tops cost $80 more than the Wal-Mart brand and had a small eagle logo precisely placed on every shirt. Who wouldn't want that?

When the doors to the mall opened last Friday, the young girl fought her way through the crowd in attempt to reach the front of the line. During the cramped dash to American Eagle, the victim tripped and was trampled by over one thousand people. Everyone was so focused on getting the expensive new brand name clothes that no one noticed the young girl lying motionless on the mall floor. But I guess it is not their fault for not noticing. That tiny logo in the corner of a shirt, that they were so desperately running for, can define a person for the rest of their life.

It’s great that brand names have become so important for the youth. Without Lulu Lemon, American Eagle, and Abercrombie and Fitch, the world would be filled with clothes that don’t have a stitched on logo displaying to everyone how much that person paid for their outfit. It is lucky that there was only one death during these past three weeks. With name brands like these, there should normally be at least one death a week.