Deyan Sudjic

Cult Heroes

How to Be Famous for More than Fifteen Minutes

What makes Liz Taylor's face worth more selling perfume than making films? What persuades Pepsi Cola to spend $20 million buying Michael Jackson's name when he won't even drink their product? And what tempts the would-be fashionable to buy a jacket with Bjorn Borg's name on it? Hardly their skill at blending scent, mixing soft drinks or designing clothes. Rather it is the image that they project and their power as brand names which are in demand as never before.

Fame is the primary product of the 1990s, manufactured and exploited with all the precision of an exact science. Used to sell anything from cars to sunglasses, it has become the most valuable and most perishable of commodities.

Cult Heroes is a skeptical and informative survey of a remarkable phenomenon that is transforming everything it touches, from sport to fashion. It explains the strange affair of the brand name skyscraper, and probes the message of Ralph Lauren, offering a highly original interpretation of the meaning of celebrity.

As a key to understanding how popular sulture works and the way in which image has become the end product, getting to grips with the cult hero is essential.