Contents RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEX AND LAUGHTER Ivan Tasovac SERBIA ON HIGH HEELS The 5 most powerful women BRANDFORUM Luxury & Glamour – differences and similarities WHY POLITICIANS LISTEN TO ME Bob Geldof NEW AMERICAN IDEALISM Barack Obama BIG SCREEN Sex and the City – Bigger is Better All -American Girl Beyonce Knowles SHOPPING SPY WHO WILL SAVE THE PLANET END OF ARROGANCE INSTEAD OF END OF WORLD Brand loyalty May 2008

Gordana Ristić editor in chief Why Brandomania magazine? What kind of magazine do we want to launch on a market abounding with glossy magazines with beautiful women and powerful men smiling from their front covers? A magazine for those who create and spend! First – in order to spend, you have to create. Second – creativity requires knowledge or skill. Third – in order to create and spend, you either have to be a brand or to work in a system that creates them, or to create a brand, or to spend a brand, or to communicate with brands... Brands convey messages, they make communication possible... Communication is certainly the most valuable part of the story. The part that requires most investment. The part that conveys a message... and the reason why things have long ceased to be just material concepts or concepts of material values. Things have become conveyors of ideas, energy, emotions. Things only seem to dominate at the end of the era we call material. Through the very thing that seemingly closed our eyes, we get what we needed or what we will need – to save both ourselves and the Planet. The two are linked. Brands lead us out of mass production and into quality that isn`t just of a material nature.

Lifestyle, which is a statement carried by brands, consists of elements that make us better and more responsible. On markets far more developed than our own, fashion designers are already extensively offering special brands for ecological fabric; for the “green” element in production that saves enough rainforests for the planet; for the humanitarian element – order that cares for others; and for the aid element that addresses the problems of the planet’s most vulnerable people. Communication between the richest and poorest, between those who love and those who don`t love brands, between those who are on top and those who aren`t yet – that is precisely the goal of the magazine that you’re looking at. Good communication leads to creativity since art communicates best, it conveys the most important messages, leaves the most important marks. Creativity is precisely what we believe is capable of making ordinary things special, ordinary stories memorable, an ordinary day extraordinary, a boring life exciting, and turning a magazine... into a special magazine. Money is just a by-product.
Excitement generated by degrading people is certainly not what we’re about. Cheap tricks cannot replace creativity. Creative excitement ennobles, makes us better, and links us to what we really are – people. That means a lot. We are capable of creating, changing, repairing, loving, wanting, living, dreaming...
So, if you have succumbed to various dogmas that make you fear that brands are unfair, or expensive, or promote capitalism, don`t forget: power is in your hands, in your mind, and in your heart. These are the elements that have existed since time immemorial and the elements that always have the final say. The biggest brands know that and they defer to PEOPLE, or, to give them their technical name: CONSUMERS. The concept of a consumer as someone who just buys has long been abandoned. A consumer is one who communicates with a product through numerous media channels – one who communicates with brands. Do you know anyone who doesn`t? Creativity and consumption require knowledge. For knowledge, read Brandomania magazine. What about excitement? That comes when you read the magazine, when we create something together. Something creative. The most valuable on the market. We can never see on our own what we can see together with you.  

What we write for you + What you see in it = Brandomania