Book excerpt: 'Branded Lives explodes the myth that a brand must, or even can stand for one unified, easily communicated message. While warning of the dangers of managing to preserve this myth, the book also celebrates the plurality of brand meanings generated by those employed to serve both the brand and the customer. I recommend reading this book in its entirety. If you are like me, your reading will bring a refreshing fullness to the experience of brands and branding and many new insights.' Mary Jo Hatch, University of Virginia, USBranded Lives explores the increasingly popular concept of employee branding as a new form of employment relationship based on brand representation. In doing so it examines the ways in which the production and consumption of meaning at work are increasingly mediated by the brand.This insightful collection draws on qualitative empirical studies in a range of contexts to include services, retail and manufacturing organizations. The contributors explore the nuances of employee branding from various disciplinary standpoints such as: organization studies, marketing, human resource management and industrial relations. They take a critical perspective on work and organizations and document the lived experience of work and employment under branded conditions. In investigating the extent to which a variety of organizational strategies seek to mould workplace meanings and practices to further build and sustain brand value and the effectiveness of these in terms of employee responses, the authors question whether the attempt to 'brand' workers' lives actually enhances or diminishes the meaning and experience of work.Based on in-depth qualitative, ethnographic and case study research this compendium will prove essential for researchers working within the general area of employment studies and specifically on branded employment and work. Students in marketing, human resource management and management as well as HR and marketing practitioners interested in employee branding will also find this book relevant and stimulating.