Considering all of the luxury retailers I've seen in Frankfurt, and all of the branded soccer jerseys I've seen so many people wearing in Frankfurt, and all of the non-generic everything I've seen in Frankfurt, I think it's disingenuous to frame this as a geographic issue.

Perhaps if you define your geography as whatever seat you currently occupy, your argument holds. But Frankfurt is hardly immune from the concept of conspicuous consumption.

In America, among many groups of people, brands are social signaling on how important/wealthy you are. It only tapers off a bit at higher incomes (>1M+). Below that, it's rampant.

Though I will say Nike shoes tend to be an exception across the board. Seems like everyone has a pair of those.

For HN: Cars, Electronics, Universities, FAANG on your resume, consumer products that signal your care for the environment or concern for your health/fitness.

But if you still want to frame it as "paying for advertising a brand" you could look into the ways that people use brands to say something about themselves. I recommend reading about the success of Starbucks, Ferrari, and Apple, especially the first 5 or so years of the iPod.

This happens in Frankfurt too. Adidas, Puma, and many more clothing companies in Germany are not cheap and display their brands prominently

Is what it is, but people treat the Apple logo and product as far more of an important status symbol than Nike.

I would go so far as to suggest that the Nike logo cheapens the "person billboard" that Apple turns customers into