(Un)Obtainable Luxury and Performance: The Semiotics of Michael Jordan’s 1996 V12 Mercedes S600 Lorinser
Abstract
On August 23rd, 2020 a model of 1996 V12 Mercedes S600 Lorinser was sold at an eBay auction. While the asking price for this particular model, in 2021, is approximately between $4,500 and $11,000, this particular car was sold for a hefty sum of $202,200. What makes this Mercedes car unique and pricey is the fact that it used to belong to a basketball’s great, Michael Jordan. The fact that the auction in question was finalized in the midst of global, Coronavirus pandemic, and following the release of The Last Dance documentary on Jordan’s career, factors into the interpretation of the semiotics of the automobile itself. The aim of this paper is to analyze: the semiotics meanings attached to Michael Jordan as a persona and a brand/sign; the semiotics meanings attached to Mercedes brand and cars; and, ultimately, shifting semiotic meanings of Jordan’s 1996 V12 Mercedes S600 Lorinser in the context of time and the selling price, with nostalgia as a factor.
Keywords:
Michael Jordan, Mercedes-Benz, brand, semiotics, automobile, commodities, cultural units, basketball, socio-economic interpretationReferences
All Auto Network. “1996 Mercedes-Benz S600 Lorinser - Michael Jordan”. Beverly Hills Car Club. https://www.beverlyhillscarclub.com/1996-mercedes-benz-s600-lorinser-michael-jordan-c-11325.htm. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
American Collectors Insurance. “Classic & Collectible Cars Pricing and Information”. americancollectors.com. https://secure.americancollectors.com/CollectorResources/NADA?quote=false&_ga=2.264968015.1199461425.1617015738-12303110.1616494664. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Andrews, David L. ed. 2001. Michael Jordan, Inc.: Corporate Sport, Media Culture, and Late Modern America. State University of New York. Albany. Print. Google Scholar
Anonymous. “Who are you, Mercedes Benz – Brand identity (Part 2)?”. dasauto-skema.blogspot.com. 25 Nov. 2013. http://dasauto-skema.blogspot.com/2013/11/who-are-you-mercedes-benz-brand.html. Accessed 9 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Aronoff, Mark. 1981. Automobile Semantics. Linguistic Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 329-347. MIT Press. Google Scholar
BBC. “Tesla overtakes Toyota to become world's most valuable carmaker”. BBC News. 1 Jul. 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53257933. Accessed 20 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Boren, Cindy. “Michael Jordan sneakers, with broken backboard glass in the sole, bring record price at auction”. Washington Post. 17 Aug. 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/17/air-jordan-1-sneakers-fetch-record-price-auction. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Eco, Umberto. 1976. A THEORY OF SEMIOTICS. Indiana University Press. Bloomington. Google Scholar
Gammon, Sean, and Ramshaw, Gregory. 2013. “Nostalgia and Sport” in Contemporary Cases in Sport. Goodfellow Publishers Ltd. Woodeaton. Vol. 1. pp 201-218. Google Scholar
Gorgan, Elena. “It Seems No One Wants Michael Jordan’s Custom 1996 Mercedes-Benz S600 Lorinser”. Autoevolution. 15 Feb. 2021. https://www.autoevolution.com/news/it-seems-no-one-wants-michael-jordans-custom-1996-mercedes-benz-s600-lorinser-156098.html. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Guthrie, Susannah. “These are the world's 15 most valuable car brands”. Caradvice.com.au. 23 Oct. 2020. https://www.caradvice.com.au/895187/these-are-the-worlds-15-most-valuable-car-brands. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
IMDb. “The Last Dance Awards”. 2021. IMDb.com. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8420184/awards?ref_=tt_awd. Accessed 23 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Jing, Zhang and Yan, Liang. 2021. Application of Symbols in Creative Technology Design – Taking Mercedes-Benz as an example. E3S Web of Conferences 236, 05021. Google Scholar
LaFeber, Walter. 1999. Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism. W. W. Norton & Company. New York. Google Scholar
Moore, Kasey. 26. Feb. 2021. “Every Viewing Statistic Netflix Has Released So Far (February 2021)”. What’s on Netflix. https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/every-viewing-statistic-netflix-has-released-so-far-february-2021. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
NBA. “Michael Jordan Receives The Presidential Medal of Freedom”. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTWvhpd6Qpo. Accessed 15 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
____. 4 May 2020. “'The Last Dance' continues to set ratings records for ESPN”. Nba.com. https://www.nba.com/news/last-dance-ratings-continue-impressive-run-official-release. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Richter, Felix. “Outside the Box: The Booming Secondary Sneaker Market”. Statista. 2 Mar. 2021. https://www.statista.com/chart/24313/stockx-gross-merchandise-volume. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The Impact of Coronavirus on Households Across America.” RWJF, 26 Feb. 2021, www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2020/09/the-impact-of-coronavirus-on-households-across-america.html. Accessed 28 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Schrader, Stef. “Michael Jordan's V12 1996 Mercedes S600 Lorinser Sells for Over $202K”. thedrive.com. 24 Aug. 2020. https://www.thedrive.com/news/35979/michael-jordans-v12-1996-mercedes-s600-lorinser-sells-for-over-202k. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Wagner, I. “Mercedes-Benz Cars' unit sales between 2019 and 2020”. Statista. 2 Mar. 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/347054/unit-sales-of-mercedes-benz-cars. Accessed 22 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar
Wilson, Andrew and Haładewicz-Grzelak, Małgorzata. 2015. Sports utility semiotics: A semantic differential study of symbolic potential in automobile design. Semiotica; 207: pp 1–29. De Gruyter. Google Scholar
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Tomasz Jacheć, COMEDY’S SOCIAL (IR)RESPONSIBILITY: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’S RESPONSE TO DONALD STERLING SCANDAL , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XVIII (2016): Acta Neophilologica
Similar Articles
- Александр Лошаков, The Problem of Polytext in the Russian Philology , Acta Neophilologica: No. X (2008): Acta Neophilologica
- Joanna Orzechowska, Content Analysis of Sinodik from Wojnowo , Acta Neophilologica: No. XIII (2011): Acta Neophilologica
- Michał Wilczewski, TRANSLATOR’S CREATIVITY IN RENDERING NEOLOGISMS OF A LITERARY TEXT , Acta Neophilologica: No. XIII (2011): Acta Neophilologica
- Małgorzata Haładewicz-Grzelak, SOCIAL RHETORIC IN THE ICONOGRAPHY OF SAINT NICHOLAS , Acta Neophilologica: No. XIII (2011): Acta Neophilologica
- Joanna Orzechowska, Extralinguistic Factors of the Discourse of ‘поминовение’ (Naming the Dead and Prayers for Them) as Based on Sinodik from Wojnowo , Acta Neophilologica: No. XII (2010): Acta Neophilologica
- Grzegorz Ojcewicz, Sergei Yesenin’s Black Man as a Text about the Battle of the Good and the Evil. Genesis. History. Interpretation , Acta Neophilologica: No. XII (2010): Acta Neophilologica
- Ewa Nikadem-Malinowska, Visualisation of Loneliness in the Joseph Brodsky’s Poem Новые стансы к Августе in the Cognitive Perspective , Acta Neophilologica: No. XI (2009): Acta Neophilologica
- Любовь Савёлова, Adverbial Explicators of Cultural Information in the Russian Language , Acta Neophilologica: No. X (2008): Acta Neophilologica
- Ewa Kujawska-Lis, TRANSLATION OF BIBLICAL REFERENCES IN LITERARY AND NON-LITERARY TEXTS , Acta Neophilologica: No. X (2008): Acta Neophilologica
- Marek Krawiec, ENGLISH WORDS IN THE TALK OF POLISH TEENAGERS. A REVIEW OF SOCIOLINGUISTIC ASPECTS , Acta Neophilologica: No. X (2008): Acta Neophilologica
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
