The founder and his brand: plastic semiotics, semi-symbolism, and the amalgamation of corporate and private identities in the anti-ageing wellness market

Abstract

Through the analysis of two brands in the health, wellness, and longevity sector — Bulletproof and Primal Blueprint — this article examines the amalgamation of brand identity and the lifestyle ideologies of the founders, creating a “total lifestyle” that exceeds the consumption of commodities. The analyses of both brands as isolated entities and the relations they construct within the sector explore the various contrasts constituting the problem of “identity” — both brand and personal, public and private — utilising concepts and methods of analysis developed throughout Jean-Marie Floch’s body of work. In particular, this article revisits his Plastic Semiotics, exploring the semi-symbolism constructed in the logos and the alimentary discourses produced by both brands. The article concludes with a reflection on the significant mechanisms marking the brands’ trajectories from dissenting actors in a sector to authoritative brands aligned with the status quo, interrogating the extent to which such trajectories are aligned with transformations in the brands’ semiotic structures.