Journal article
Stealing the Signs: A Semiotic Analysis of the Changing Nature of Professional Sports Logos
Social semiotics, v 11(1)
01 Apr 2001
Abstract
Explores the changing nature of professional sports logos, using semiotics & the work of postmodern writers like Jean Baudrillard, G. Debord, & Frederik Jameson as the theoretical framework. Brandishing a professional sports team's logo was once a sign of allegiance; it signified the person's love for his/her favorite team. A number of forces, including TV & the aggressive marketing of sports-related collectibles, have indelibly changed the relationship between fan & team. On one level, logos "imply social rapport & social power" (Baudrillard, 1983). Wearing culturally endorsed logos of culturally endorsed teams guarantees status to the wearer. But, on another level, logos reveal the diminution of the fan's role to one of consumer of an endless stream of team-related products, actions channeled into what Debord would call the "global construction of the spectacle." The uniqueness of the logo & its original reference to connection with a team have been erased. Where in the past, fans used the logo to trumpet their contact with a team & its players, contact today is achieved by purchasing the goods manufactured & licensed by the team. Teams have successfully constructed an antiplayer, prosport discourse that binds fans to them & to their products. As Coombe (1998) suggests, teams have interpellated a fan "with a more visual orientation & with more corporeal desires -- desires met both by material consumption & by visual consumption of embodied others made available through the mass media.". 19 References. Adapted from the source document.
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26 citations in Scopus
Details
- Title
- Stealing the Signs: A Semiotic Analysis of the Changing Nature of Professional Sports Logos
- Creators
- Ron Bishop
- Publication Details
- Social semiotics, v 11(1)
- Publisher
- Taylor and Francis
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Communication
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85047687954
- Other Identifier
- 991019173796404721