1. Harvey's (1989) study of 'postmodernity' situates such cultural phenomena within a 'totality' of political economic contradictions, advancing the thesis that periodic crises of overaccumulation have occasioned "disruptive bouts of space-time compression" marked by intensive turns toward aesthetics (327). His study examines the broad relationship between political economy (tendencies toward flexible accumulation and the restructuring of spatial and temporal practices since the early 1970s) and the emergence of the 'depthless surfaces' of postmodernity. There is less specificity in how he situates advertising in relation to either side of these historical changes. He edges near the heart of the matter when he observes that advertising plays an increasingly central role in the growth dynamics of capitalism, but flounders by reducing it to the "manipulation of desires and tastes" (286). Of course, advertising works on desire and taste - but this is the beginning of our analysis, not the end. What is glossed over here is why capitalism can no longer function without an apparatus that systematically turns the cultural and psychosocial regions of aesthetics and desire into commodity signifiers and signifieds. Harvey points toward the social and cultural contradictions of a political economy of commodity signs, but stops short of analyzing those contradictions because advertising has been inadequately theorized at the level of political economy.

2. A crisis of sign values does not necessarily also mean the reduction of commodity sign expenditures. In fact, when the economy is weak, individuals often divert disposable income into signs (or more purely signs) rather than objects. Yuppies cannot afford houses so they purchase stereos and clothing and even cars. Ghetto kids buy high-tech sneakers and teenagers, in general, consume anything with a sign on it.

3. "The society of the spectacle is still a commodity society, ultimately rooted in production, but reorganized at a higher and more abstract level" (Best 1989, p.29).

4. Fordism is the term coined by the 'Regulation' school to refer to the capital intensive, automated, high productivity, mass consumption, and eventually high-wage stage of capitalist economies. Fordism required the development of a State regulatory apparatus to steer and manage Capital-Labor conflicts as well as domestic markets. Historically, Fordism demarcated a period characterized by the near-universal extension of wage labor to the whole of the labor force, intensified individuation and social atomization and a corresponding erosion of traditional social structures (see Aglietta 1975; Davis 1978; Braverman 1974). Prompted by the increasingly systemic penetration of capital into society, the 'welfare state' emerged to regulate the social gaps generated by this mode of accumulation. Post-Fordism (see Hall 1991; Harvey 1991) is associated with flexibility of production - flexibility of capital, of the labor process, of technology, and of the site of production (see Bluestone & Harrison 1982). We prefer the term "flexible accumulation" to post-Fordism (see Harvey 1989, p.188-197). There is considerable debate about whether there has really been a transition from Fordism to flexible accumulation (see Gordon 1988). There is less dispute that Fordism - as an arrangement of state and society - became increasingly crisis-ridden in the 1970s. The general reasons given for this crisis are: a) the State apparatus necessary to regulating class conflict and covering the gaps in the social reproduction of capital finally became an impediment to capital accumulation (see Hirsch 1988). Though he does not refer to 'Fordism,' O'Connor's (1973) theory of fiscal crisis is the most coherent analysis of the fundamental contradictions of this stage of capital accumulation. b) its high-wage labor force made "Fordist" capital inefficient relative to those using high-tech technology in conjunction with non-Western labor forces.

5. "...the existence of old stock spells economic death for any capital trapped in commodity form" (Haug 1986, p.23).

6. Economies of scale were more and more based on speed ("high-volume stock-turn"). "To maintain and continue a high volume of flow demanded organizational innovation" (Chandler 1977, p.236). Put another way, it required administration of flow (283).

7. Marchand (1985) found that the same themes evident in advertising in the mid 1920s continued to predominate in 1930s ads. Ads addressed themselves primarily to the upper middle class during both the 1920s and the Depression-era years. Is it possible that the Depression period actually bolstered a sign economy in the long run by reinforcing the relationship between signs and status as the accumulation of cultural capital?

8. Other essential features of this system of "bureaucratic control" included "productivity bargaining" and the rationalization of grievance procedures (Edwards 1979; Gordon, Edwards, & Reich 1982).

9. Whereas prior to WWII the reproduction of labor power was accomplished almost exclusively through the wage structure, after WWII, State socialization of the reproduction of labor power expanded significantly (Bowles 1982, p. 52).

10. We must be careful not to locate current crisis tendencies solely in underconsumption. Though the spectre of underconsumption hovers as an ever-present possibility (given the declining incomes of American workers), the roots of the current crisis lie in privatized overconsumption.

11. Where does cable television and its steady displacement of the national networks (and the corresponding fragmentation of the audience) fit into flexible accumulation? Likewise, what is the relationship between flexible accumulation and the built environment of malls and franchises? In the late 1980s, decentralizing forces countered the centralization of consumption in the shopping mall and network television. Cable television has challenged the hegemony of network TV and the shopping mall industry "has lost favor with consumers. What was once a novel or pleasant experience for many shoppers has become a hassle - it takes too long to find a parking spot and too long to trek from one end of the mall to another." Construction of new shopping centers is on the decline (Rosenberg 1991).

12. See Jameson 1984; Harvey 1989; Kellner 1989.

13. Franchising = technique + organization + image.

14. See for example, the telephone carrier ads that now accompany Olympic events - choreographing the achievements of the last twenty-four hours' American heroines and heroes.

15. Analysis of the relationship between commodity-sign values and alienated consumption must examine the ephemeral and empty character of signs and the gap between the sign and referentiality. How is that gap socially experienced?

16. When advertisers feel compelled to exploit the pleasure of the text as a means of restoring the viability of the sign machine, we can no longer counterpose the pleasure of the text against a fabric of cultural domination. With increasing frequency, advertisements attempt to lure otherwise alienated viewers to participate in the pleasure of the text: they do so, it must be emphasized for one reason, and one reason only, to motivate viewers to complete signs and give value to them.

17. We follow Lebowitz (1978, p.93) in insisting that the falling rate of profit does not necessarily mean "Limit" but must be understood rather as "barrier" to capital. "The falling rate of profit is the negation of capital, and, as dialectics tells us, its existence ensures the growth, movement, and development of capital."