Supermarkets as libraries of postmodern mythology

Using qualitative research methods this article explores the relationship between the point-of-purchase brand rhetoric and the consumers' reading of the poetry of packaging. The findings emphasize the myth-making function of commercial storytelling, identify the consumer as co-creator of marketplace myths, and theorize the process of myth-making as a projectable field that remains open to interpretations by consumers. Instead of producing a single mono-myth, the research demonstrates, package narratives produce multiple micro-myths. These postmodern fragmented micro-myths more fully connect consumers with brands.