ABSTRACT
In an essay on ‘Consumer Culture and the Aura of the Commodity’, Alan Tomlinson notes how in today’s society commodities have acquired an ‘aura’, an air of fantasy, which goes beyond any practical purpose they may serve.1 Items such as jeans or watches are bought as much or more for the images and lifestyles they project through advertising as for their practical usefulness. In effect, the aura-the shimmer of meanings and associations-surrounding the commodity has eclipsed the commodity itself in terms of importance in the marketplace. We acquire items for their style, more than for their function.
