Acknowledgments -- Chapter I The role of semiotics in research on consumer esthetics -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Some background on the study of signs -- 2.1. Overview -- 2.2. Neopositivistic semiotics -- 2.3. Interpretive semiology -- 2.4. Summary -- 3. The study of signs in consumer esthetics -- 3.1. Beginnings -- 3.2. The link to consumer esthetics -- 3.3. Preview -- 3.4. Problems and prospects in neopositivistic semiotic studies of consumer esthetics -- 3.5. Problems and prospects in the interpretive semiology of consumer esthetics -- 4. Criticisms and defenses of interpretive semiology -- 4.1. The critique and defense concerning the scientific status of interpretive semiology -- 4.2. The critique and defense concerning the appeal to managerial relevance -- 5. Preview -- Chapter II Semiotics and popular culture -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The ideology of consumption -- 2.1. Preview -- 2.2 "Dallas" and "Dynasty" -- 2.3. Sacredness and secularity in motion pictures -- 3. Motion picture mythology -- 3.1. Introduction -- 3.2. What is a myth? -- 3.3. Analyzing myths -- 3.4. Classifying archetypes -- 3.5. The structure of myths -- 3.6. Motion pictures as myths -- 3.7. Discussion -- Chapter III Romanticism and sentimentality in consumer behavior: A literary approach to the joys and sorrows of consumption -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Romanticism -- 2.1. The romantic ethos -- 2.2. The Wordsworthian vision -- 2.3. The quest -- 2.4. A universal impulse -- 2.5. Preview -- 3. The joys and sorrows of consumption -- 3.1. Odysseus comes home -- 3.2. Aeneas and the tragic Queen Dido: From romanticism to sentimentality -- 3.3. The age of sentiment -- 3.4. From Marlowe to Goethe: Faust gets saved -- 3.5. Bloom as Ulysses: Odysseus returns -- 4. Epilogue.

Chapter IV Seven routes to facilitating the semiotic interpretation of consumption symbolism and marketing imagery in works of art -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Prospects and problems, dangers and difficulties -- 3. Seven routes to interpretation -- 4. Conclusion -- Appendices -- 1. Appendix 1: Women of Manhattan -- 2. Appendix 2: Beverly Hills cop -- 3. Appendix 3: Tin men and the marketing concept -- 4. Appendix 4: Gremlins as metaphors for materialism -- 5A. Appendix 5A: Coastal disturbances (coauthored with Stephen Bell and Mark W. Grayson) -- 5B. Appendix 5B: Sacred and secular consumption imagery in A Christmas carol -- 6. Appendix 6: Automotive signs in Two for the road -- 7. Appendix 7: Major and minor uses of symbolic consumer behavior to develop plot and character in Out of Africa (coauthored with Mark W. Grayson) -- References -- Index.