Trademarks have overridden our subconscious through semantic imagery that dilutes our emotions forcing us to be capital slaves to the state of consumption

The influence of trade marks is not limited to cases in¶ which an existing cultural sign is chosen to serve as a¶ mark. A culturally meaningful trade mark must incorporate certain ideas and values. In order to reach this¶ goal, the trade mark should be linked to cultural signs¶ that denote these ideas and values. For example, to¶ invest a trade mark with the spirit of romantic love,¶ advertising can, among other things, display it together¶ with the word ‘love’, flowery hearts, a diamond ring, or¶ a romantic couple walking on a beach. All of our¶ society’s ideals—happiness, freedom, love, and professional success—are eventually exploited by advertising¶ which attempts to link them to commercial trade marks.¶ This process strengthens the cultural significance of promoted trade marks and of consumption in general.¶ However, the significance of the social ideals exploited¶ by advertising is also affected. Although each advertisement pulls a given sign towards another product or¶ service, all have a common message: the way to happiness, freedom, love, professional success, etc. lies through¶ the consumption of commercial goods and services.¶ Even if not every single advertisement succeeds in¶ fastening the promoted trade mark to the desired cultural ideal, their cumulative effect successfully links¶ consumption to important social values, giving it a¶ central place in modern society. People attribute great¶ importance to consumption and associate it with¶ happiness, pleasure, freedom, and self-reward.14¶ However, because of the existence of reciprocal forces¶ in the semantic field, this process has a flip-side, since¶ cultural ideals to which consumption has been linked¶ start incorporating materialistic values. If consumption¶ denotes happiness then, necessarily, happiness also¶ denotes consumption to a certain extent. If a luxury¶ cruise, dinner in a restaurant, or an expensive piece of¶ jewellery symbolize true love, then the notion of true¶ love also includes these consuming practices to some¶ extent. Constantly linking cultural ideals to the banal¶ context of consumption dilutes and hollows their distinct meaning. As Andrew Wernick notes, even in¶ church, it is hard to hear the word ‘paradise’ without¶ thinking on the multitude of goods to which this idea¶ has been promotionally linked.15¶ Frequently, cultural signs with a strong and distinctive significance, cultural icons, are chosen to serve as¶ rhetorical figures in advertising.