Don’t Take Personal Branding too Far – It Might Hurt You [Human Branding]

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I talk about personal branding all the time, which is far different than human branding. Human branding is when a living person’s skin is burned with a hot or cold iron, with the intention that the resulting scar is permanent. In the streets of New York city, you will find people that actually do this and select fraternities, spread across the US, brand their pledges during initiation. I pledged a fraternity, but did not partake in this practice (thank god). The picture below depicts the corporate brand Intel being burned into the forearm of a person. Although this may come off as good advertising, people seriously hurt themselves this way and it’s no laughing matter.

Beware: Before you watch the below video, realize that it may just gross you out or make you lose interest in branding in general. In no way does this video express my passion for personal branding or this blog. It is not suitable for watching at work. It’s actually interested to see that this culture of human branding exists in our world, but don’t try this at home!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbsFCRuxUds]

Picture of Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. He is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press) and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future (Kaplan Publishing), which combined have been translated into 15 languages.

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