T&F Proofs: Not For Distribution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 2 When Sacred Objects Go B®a(n)d Fashion Rosaries and the Contemporary Linkage of Religion and Commerciality Diego Rinallo, Stefania Borghini, Gary Bamossy, and Robert V. Kozinets “Not only has religion become a consumption object, consumption has become a religion in which wealth and opulence are venerated.” (O’Guinn and Belk, 1989, p. 237) Is nothing sacred? Is everything sacred? Is there no in-between? Ever since the Odyssey returned its divine verdict on the sacred state of the American economy, consumer researchers have been seeking and finding holiness throughout a range of ostensibly drab, everyday objects and activi- ties. Exploring “the admixture of the religious and the commercial” in the Heritage Village context of “televangelism, neo-fundamentalism, and the religious right,” O’Guinn and Belk (1989, p. 227) asked if “commodities” could be “sacralized within the religious sphere, where opposing values pre- sumably would be strongest.” Their positive answer to this question, they asserted, was “evidence of refashioned contemporary linkages between an economic system and religion” (O’Guinn and Belk, 1989, p. 237). Emphasizing the literally iconic nature of the consumption object, Schouten and McAlexander (1995, p. 50) find that “so strong is the Harley- Davidson motorcycle as an organizing symbol for the biker ethos that it has become, in efect, a religious icon around which an entire ideology of con- sumption is articulated.” Setting a now-standard formula, they then pro- ceed to articulate numerous “religious aspects of the subculture,” including the “transcendental departure” of the ride, reverence of objects such as the motorcycle, creation of shrines, principles of brotherhood, religious and Satanic naming conventions, rituals, proselytism and missionary work, and a “gospel” or ideology (Schouten and McAlexander, 1995, pp. 50–51). Belk and Tumbat (2005) return to the company’s genesis in order to argue the religious equivalence of the Apple brand and its supportive community. They state this equivalence in no uncertain terms: “The Mac and its fans con- stitute the equivalent of a religion. This religion is based on an origin myth for Apple Computer, heroic and savior legends surrounding its co-founder . . . CEO Steve Jobs, the devout faith of its follower congregation, their belief in the righteousness of the Macintosh, the existence of one or more Satanic Rinallo 1st pages.indd 29 Rinallo 1st pages.indd 29 5/1/2012 2:28:51 PM 5/1/2012 2:28:51 PM