ABSTRACT
A surge of interest by marketers in integrated communications strategies, by which promotional messages are coordinated among advertising, public relations, and sales promotions efforts, brings with it the implicit acknowledgment that people assimilate consumption data from many sources (cf. Schultz, 1990). Information about desirable and undesirable products is sifted from magazine ads, television commercials, movies, store displays, observation of peers and celebrities, MTV, and so on (cf. Faber & O'Guinn, 1988). These messages, in turn, are assimilated by consumers as they construct a lifestyle representing their unique interpretations of the consumption ideals prevalent in popular culture.
