The Hollywood sign currently stands as an international symbol--a word that proudly evokes the glamour of cinema and the promise of super stardom. Take a trip to Griffith Park any day of the week and you will bear witness to the sheer magnetism of the Hollywood sign. Tourists snap photos in its shadow, proving to friends and family that they were there. They saw it. They stood inside the amorphous space we call Hollywood. It is almost as important as a celebrity sighting (but not quite).

There are many ways to approach the critical study of such an icon. To study the Hollywood sign one must look at the history of the film industry, the history of Los Angeles, and the history of America. Although the sign itself has undergone extensive physical changes over the decades, it remains one of the most internationally recognizable icons of America.

Recently, members of the Lear Center's BrandSpace project convened to discuss Professor Leo Braudy's new book about the material history and social evolution of the Hollywood sign. The sign has recently become the subject of local scrutiny as real estate developers threatened to take over the land surrounding this perceived symbol of American progress. Luckily, as The Associated Press reported, "The Hollywood sign, a beacon to stars and star-struck alike, has been saved from urban sprawl under a land conservation pact announced Monday after a donation by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner capped a multimillion-dollar fundraising drive." Ironically, as Braudy points out, the sign was initially intended to function as an advertisement for a new housing development in the hills. Over time, however, the sign has come to mean much more--both a Mecca of American tourism as well as a national icon. For Braudy, the Hollywood sign is a fascinating case study for the BrandSpace group: What role does the sign play in the branding of Hollywood? Can we locate historical moments when the meaning of the sign shifted? And what makes the Hollywood sign such a powerful icon?

The word "icon" has its origins in religious rhetoric, referring to the specific representation of a deity. Today, the word is more broadly defined as any picture, image, or visual representation and it can refer to people (Elvis), art (the Mona Lisa), food (hamburgers!) or images on a computer desktop. We define icons as "special" things--easily recognizable symbols that are legible and explicable to the culture at large. For the BrandSpace group, the Hollywood sign provides an opportunity to discuss the relationship between an icon and a brand. The group proposed that a brand is an imposition, an artificial entity created for the purpose of consumption. Brands are constructed. They are produced. And they always aim to sell something. Icons, on the other hand, appear to be more organic. They emerge from an indeterminate set of social and industrial factors. As one member of the group pointed out, "An icon is permeable in a way that brands are not. Because brands rely on repetition and the evocation of a specific response, the icon is more enveloping." In this sense, brands that use icons to evoke a specific response provide the BrandSpace group with an inflection point. And the Hollywood sign, for example, stands at the perfect intersection between icon and brand. It is a visual referent with no concrete reference point. It is a word that describes much more than its surroundings. It is a logo without a product.

The Hollywood sign is not really "selling anything." Sure, it promotes the idea of a place where Hollywood films are made, and it serves as an ancillary product to the film industry. But what it really stands for is almost entirely abstract. It's strange to think that the image of such an icon could be owned by anyone, but, as Braudy explained, the sign is currently copyright protected. In order to use an image of the sign for a commercial purpose, you must pay a royalty fee to the Chamber of Commerce. Still, people continue to rally behind it, as if the sign belonged to a collective community.

As Braudy put it, "The Hollywood sign floats above its setting and its circumstances." It is an icon, a brand and a symbol. But one important thing that contributes to the mythology of the Hollywood sign is the fact that people need to keep saving it. Due to its shoddy construction and its location on prime real estate, people have had to make repeated efforts to keep it intact. There's only one thing more powerful than an icon, and that's an icon in need of saving.