Brands occupy an increasingly prominent place in the managerial mind as well as the cultural landscape. Recent research has shown that brands are interpreted or read in multiple ways, prompting an important and illuminating reconsideration of how branding "works," and shifting attention from brand producers toward consumer response to understand how branding interacts with consumers to create meaning. Largely missing from these insights, however, is an awareness of basic cultural processes that affect contemporary brands, including historical context, ethical concerns, and consumer response....