How is one bottle of water in a store different from another? How can a pair of jeans can cost more than a monthly income of an average Ukrainian? What makes different products so unique and distinctive? Why do families go to some public spaces, hipsters to others, and businesspeople to yet others? The existence of brands contribute answers to these questions. Brands have become a part of contemporary life and culture. The image-making and marketing industries progress intensively every day, and brands are actively grasping people's minds.

Do you know the following slogans: "Just do it", "Think different", "Connecting people", "I'm lovin’ it"? Such short phrases and constructed images convey a certain lifestyle, behavior patterns and public image. Addiction to certain brands may indicate a desire to become part of a certain history, image, or fashion. For example, a successful businessman should be the happy owner of an expensive car, display a snow-white smile, and keep the company of a beautiful woman - only with long black eyelashes and velvet skin. Brand is a combination of name, history, reputation, values, logo, motivational slogan, etc. Such created meanings, signs and symbolic values often make consumers choose one product or service over another. Your choice becomes a direct indicator of your values and values of the culture in which you live.

The "Chic-Modern" exhibition of the young Ukrainian artist Pazza Pennello included acrylic paintings on canvas, which depicted the brands and products that appeared in Ukraine after the fall of the Iron Curtain. These American and European goods became valuable and rare things in post-Soviet societies. “Chic-modern” is a collocation which was very popular in the USSR and was used to name luxury, expensive, rare, fancy, and stylish goods. Through the prism of art, we could look at how branding and marketing affect the different cultures and lives of people in the post-industrial economy. The artist showed scarce goods, which revealed the values of consumers, producers and the culture itself in which they live. The series was complemented by a series of portraits of characters from popular American TV series such as Santa Barbara and Dynasty, demonstrating that films and TV series are commercial brands and trendy products that translate cultural values and codes.