In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Thorstein Veblen draws attention to the phenomenon of consuming goods and services not as a means of satisfying needs, but as communicating status and well-being.
This suggests that semiotics should be used on an equal footing with economics for an adequate understanding of goods. What the consumer society produces is mostly consumers, and like everything else, they are consumers of signs.
Thus, when we see a person wearing a Gucci T-shirt, for example, it seems appropriate to ask whether the T-shirt or the one who wears it is the product.
