“Scholars have long noted that the medieval peasant could not move far from the iconography of Catholicism. . . . Just as we may recognize the difference between Coca-Cola red and Marlboro red, the medieval audience knew well that Christ’s robe was a distinct shade of red. Commercial speech is here for the same reason Christian iconography was there. It is how we sort through things.”

—James B. Twitchell, Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism, 1999.