post-medium

The idea of consumer products as narrators is nothing new. It might one of the principle axioms of cultural criticism as informed by rhetorical theory — anything can be a text, all texts make arguments, and these arguments reveal value systems (Sellnow 5). Fisher further elaborates that arguments are most fully understood as narratives. The popular culture is therefore full of narratives, and their apprehension is not necessarily predicated on awareness of the narrative itself . Every day, in a variety of ways, popular culture successfully communicates arguments that its consumers cannot directly distinguish. The most important targets for criticism should follow from this notion and include artifacts with the most ubiquity and the highest degree of assimilation. As of yet, little rhetorical scholarship has been devoted to the Apple brand as a cultural artifact, despite its growing satisfaction of these criteria. Clearly the brand aggressively promotes its narrative, which is mediate