PL 7

One passage in chapter 7 that really rang true to me was:

"Lawyers refer to the way that trademarks become part of public culture as genericide. The owner of the mark loses rights to the name if it takes on a meaning for the generic type in the market, rather than for the particular branded product" (292).

The examples the authors cite are "Kleenex" and "Coke," which I found to be very fitting examples because the only two examples of genericide in my own life are those. I rarely call tissue anything besides "Kleenex," and every soft drink to me is "Coke," even if it's a competing brand like Pepsi. I had never thought of it as being anything other than a case of, "you say tomato, I say tom-ah-to," but now I realize the cultural implications of what we choose to name things in our speech and writing.

Another portion of the chapter that I found interesting was page 276, where it is written that:

"We can say, then, that advertising asks us not to consume products but to consume signs in the semiotic meanings of the term...Ads set up particular relationships between the signifier (the product) and the signified (its meaning) to create signs in order to sell not simply products but the connotations we attach to those products."

I find this to be absolutely true. The first example I thought of was skincare commercials that advertise younger, more vibrant skin. When we make the choice to purchase that product, it's not because of the actual chemical potion, but the promise that we will look better, feel better, and be better versions of ourselves if we use that product. As the text says, it is the signified, not the signifier, that we are after.