commodity fetishism

This is one of my favourite bits of Marx.
I used it for my dissertation on fetishism and objects in Dickens and how objects turned into people and people into objects (you know about this so I won't bore you with the details).
But at this time of year, commodity fetishism really kicks in. See here and here and here.
This always induces me furious rage that I cannot beautifully gift wrap perfect presents for my beloved relatives, also a massive simultaneous need for stuff like this and this.
Many regular readers, such as Dr Rob will point out, rightly, that this is all a capitalist plot to make us spend more and obviously I agree with him.
Dr Joolz has found a very good site here which also deconstructs the notion of advertising.
But Marx was making a more subtle point.
Some objects have more value than others, and fetishism, as Freud also observed, is about identity, the unconscious and desire.
Watch this space.