The Mighty Product Fetish

Cult brands are trendsetters, which redefine consumers’ tastes. Like religious idols they establish contact to everyday shapes, to tradition and the common background. Banal objects surpass their real value. The product world is slowly encroaching into areas, which were formerly the domain of religious and cultural institutions. In addition to their practical uses some products are assuming the character of religious icons and become product icons.

Their emotional aspect changes them into objects of desire, which replaces the reason for their creation. The film shows how a product fetish comes about. From its creation to its introduction onto the market the documentary shows how designers, advertising agencies and marketing experts attempt to artificially create a fetish character for the product.

Simultaneously, the film follows a ceremony of the Hopi native American tribe showing the effect of religious fetishes on the tribe members.

The profane and the sacred mingle. The product fetish becomes sacred and the religious fetish corrupt.