Myth -- Cuervo

It happens that advertising is an ideal site for examining this interpretation of myth since ads are structured to yield second-order signifiers. The advertisement I've chosen to illustrate this conception of myth is yet another alcohol ad. In this case, Cuervo Especial appropriates an image of old Mexico: the Aztec or Mayan temple from "ancient Mexico." This image draws on a first-order signification of Mexican heritage. The ad arranges this image in relation to the Tequila, the product advertised, for the purpose of extending the meaning of Mexican heritage to Cuervo. The ad's slogan, "Monumental Margaritas," provides an axis of equivalence between two meaning systems. By situating the meaning of Cuervo in the image of the monumental ritual architecture of ancient Mexico, the alcohol appropriates this same idea of monumental consciousness to its own sign. The pyramid thus modified becomes the sign devised to stand for Cuervo.

However, the advertisement also introduces a new element to the mythic image by framing it with a "monumental" blender filled with margaritas. This image graft once again reminds us of the power of photography and framing to decontextualize and then recontextualize meanings. The historical monuments of Mexico now testify to the monumental significance of Cuervo Especiale. Nevermind that it is both lurid, in terms of what the temple once represented to its believers (an altar of sacrifice) and surreal in its presentation.

To Barthes this is a classic example of myth as a second-order semiological system. The monument/pyramid has been defrocked of its signified meaning as a religious site. The history of such temples, first lost/destroyed by Catholic missionaries in their pious efforts to impose their hegemony over native peoples, is now distorted beyond belief by the image of a modern invention of the blender now installed on the temple seat of sacrifice. One doubts that the Gods would be appeased, though we must also acknowledge that the hemorrhaging of Catholic hegemony is also so severe that even its traces are now invisible.

The ad invokes an image loaded with references to traditional cultural history, but it does so solely for the purpose of redirecting that history as a signifier. "History" now points as an indexical sign towards the significance of Cuervo. Only POMO gods could be satisfied by this twist as pyramids and branded tequila now operate as equally weightless in a chain of signification that goes nowhere but to the altar of exchange value. The religious meaning systems of the temple have been dislocated, and perhaps even lost: it has now become a signification of the Mexico's past grandeur, but testifies not to that grandeur, but to the grandeur of Cuervo as a commodity.

The temple has become reduced to a representation of Mexicanicity. Though it now testifies to good taste, it has been rendered mute about the injustices of the Spanish conquerors upon the Aztec nation. Moreover, its image is used to sell a product, Tequila, that once had religious significance to the people who constructed the temple. In our retelling of this story we must recall that Tequila is a Spanish invention from the ritual alcohol Pulque that once held social significance to the Aztec people during their celebrations to appease their Gods. The Spanish did not like its taste or mild alcohol content, thus, tequila became a new alcohol. This is the problem with the mythic image as Barthes analyzes it: myth, as a sign, quantifies, rather than qualifies, the image so it has no real meaning in itself. The history of form and meaning, signifier and signified, has been lost to where the image of the religious temple is a mythic signification of Mexico. Instead, the temple's function has been reduced to that of a spectacle to sell an alcohol created by the destroyers of their original culture. Viva La Revolucion!

written by Steve Lobdell and revised by Bob Goldman