Popular brands help create idealized self-images for consumers, says a UC Davis American culture scholar.

"That product is not really how you see yourself, but it is an idealized image of what you'd like to be," says Carolyn de la Peña, an assistant professor of American studies and a former branding strategist who worked on national corporate accounts.

"Advertisers aren't typically trying to make people desire something they don't want; more often, they're trying to attach a set of things that consumers do desire -- status, relaxation, love -- onto materials that may or may not have anything really to do with the actual thing desired," she says. "Advertising is more about figuring out how consumers want to imagine themselves and claiming that a product can make that imagination reality."

She points to the Prada fashion company, which is rebranding itself through a new showcase store in New York City. Although pricey, the Italian fashion house has developed a negative image of being a brand that engenders cheap knockoffs throughout the world.

To combat that image, the new store in Soho displays large video screens portraying unpleasant, chaotic images of global commerce. Meanwhile, the store displays upscale Prada items in a sparse museum-like setting to show the consumer that the brand Prada is really about high-quality and luxury.

Prada has embraced the criticism and, by doing so, reshaped its brand. It asks consumers to think about the contrast between the screen and the store's merchandise, thus offering people the choice of which kind of consumer they want to be.

"Prada has picked up the negative image and turned it around to their favor," de la Peña says.