“In mortalitas, lucrum” (In death, profit)

The term “personal branding” didn’t exist when Malcolm McLaren began searing the Sex Pistols’ image into the world’s psyche, creating an inexorable link between their visage and the punk rock movement – and more generally a link between fashion and music. That indelible association has continued unabated, influencing modern art, music and fashion – spawning new industries and creating massive profit based on the images McLaren helped invent. But what does the future hold for McLaren himself? With a family still deeply ingrained in the fashion industry, now left with not only his legacy but his iconic image and the revolution and counterculture it represents – will they choose to brand and sell it the same way he sold punk?

Let’s face it, the dead are big business. Sony recently signed the biggest record deal in history to license the Michael Jackson brand for $250 million and is planning music, movies and video games based on the life of the recently departed King of Pop. Other dead celebrities and performers often top the list of highest grossing artists year over year. Sometimes it’s the usual suspects – musicians like Elvis, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix, writers like J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Schultz and Dr. Seuss, or just established individual entities like Einstein, Monroe, Warhol and Yves Saint Laurent. The estates of these artists have been nurturing the power of their brands and reaping huge profits from their legacies. In fact, Forbes publishes an annual list of top-earning dead celebrities reporting the ongoing value of these stars. The top 13 grossed $886 million last year alone. And new names are being added to the list – daily! Death is far from the end of life for these household names and there will always be others seeking to cash in on their fame and fortune, even postmortem. The dead are literally rising again. The Bruce Lee estate is aggressively looking to expand the reach of the world’s most famous Kung Fu master. Amelia Earhart is flying again, and classic figures of literature like Jane Austen and Lord Byron and being re-packaged and rejuvenated in movie deals and licensed products.

But whether it’s Malcolm McLaren, recently-departed fashion icon Alexander McQueen, or reggae legend Bob Marley, working with the dead isn’t always easy. Managing their postmortem careers means navigating complex licensing rights and an army of lawyers ready to protect those valuable assets – for the sake of their memory, of course. There’s enormous incentive to nurture and protect the brands of the dead in order to maintain their impact over time. Take Jim Fitzpatrick’s iconic Che Guevara from 1967– it seems to have an unlimited lifespan, on clothing and in politics, enduring as a permanent metaphor for the underdog. Marilyn Monroe’s image has been cemented in its representation of the glamor and excess of Hollywood. But with larger-than-life living celebrities like Madonna and Lady GaGa co-opting and vastly extending that image, it’s hard to say whether the image of Monroe or old Hollywood will stand the test of time.

For revolutionaries of the past, their profit in life may have been nowhere near as lucrative as in death. But these days, the brands of the dead are facing stiff competition from the brands of the living. With our ‘always on’ lifestyles, it has also become easier to achieve “celebrity” status (think overnight sensations like Perez Hilton, Adam Lambert or Kim Kardashian). They’re all looking to sell something – be it revolutionary ideology, an aspirational version of “real life”, or the latest diet pills. With the ever-expanding competition for mind share and longevity, the dead and their managers will need to work overtime to ensure that their brands can stay relevant and competitive in the world of the living. In the words of Andy Warhol – everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame, some just want to license the rights to it for a little longer.