Header image with four cats and the text: Pussreboots, a book review nearly every day. Online since 1997
Now 2024 Previous Articles Road Essays Road Reviews Author Black Authors Title Source Age Genre Series Format Inclusivity LGBTA+ Artwork WIP

Recent posts


Month in review

Reviews
Amulet Keepers by Michael Northrop
Beneath by Roland Smith
Book of the Dead by Michael Northrop
The Boy Who Lost Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente
The Cat at the Wall by Deborah Ellis
Clark the Shark by Bruce Hale
Crewel Yule by Monica Ferris
Death Cloud by Andy Lane
Delphine by Richard Sala
Doctor Who: A Big Hand For The Doctor by Eoin Colfer
Embroidered Truths by Monica Ferris
FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics, Vol. 4: The End Times by Simon Oliver
The Ghoul Next Door by Victoria Laurie
Icons of Popular Culture by Marshall Fishwick
Lending a Paw by Laurie Cass
Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid
The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry
Mischievous Meg by Astrid Lindgren
Missy Violet and Me by Barbara Hathaway
Mister Orange by Truus Matti
Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India by Gerald McDermott
The Odds of Getting Even by Sheila Turnage
Off Road by Sean Gordon Murphy
Old Magic by Marianne Curley
Open Road: A Celebration of the American Highway by Phil Patton
Open This Little Book by Jesse Klausmeier
Orbiter by Warren Ellis
Out West: A Journey through Lewis and Clark's America by Dayton Duncan
Sins and Needles by Monica Ferris
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost
Under New York by Linda Oatman High

Miscellaneous
Crazy for Cozies

Previous month


Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

Reading Challenges

Canadian Book Challenge: 2024-2025

Beat the Backlist 2024

Ozathon: 12/2023-01/2025

Artwork
Chicken Prints
Paintings and Postcards


Privacy policy

This blog does not collect personal data. It doesn't set cookies. Email addresses are used to respond to comments or "contact us" messages and then deleted.


Icons of Popular Culture: 03/10/16

Icons of Popular Culture by Marshall Fishwick

Icons of Popular Culture by Marshall Fishwick written in the 1960s and published in the 1970s could just as easily be called Branding of Popular Culture. The central thesis is that with the secularization of modern American society, the brands created by modern corporations have become the new iconography.

In 1970 the king of the brands was Coca Cola. A good third of this slim book is devoted to the soda manufacturer out of Atlanta, Georgia. Though the brand is still around and the iconic bottle (now more often than not rendered in plastic than glass) is still around, it's not the king of the branding pantheon. Now that would be Apple, Android, Amazon, among others.

Coca Cola bottles on a Google image search.

In the context of my road trip research, I was looking for insight into commercial aspects of the journey. The road is lined with billboards. The Inns are replaced by chain motels and hotels. Food is provided by chain restaurants, and even those that are independent still all serve the same list of soft drinks.

In terms of the road narrative, the corollary to Fishwich's thesis was the most relevant: Americans aren't aware of how in depth their brand knowledge is or how they got it. It's at the silliest end of the road trip genre, the comedies, that this notion holds most true. Of course the creators are well aware of the brand's influence but their characters are not. By playing out expectations against those of the protagonists, we are made to laugh.

Two stars

Comments (0)


Lab puppy
Name:
Email (won't be posted):
Blog URL:
Comment:


Twitter Tumblr Mastadon Flickr Facebook Facebook Contact me

1997-2024 Sarah Sammis