Icon

The term icon originates from religious iconography, a painting of someone deemed to be 'holy', however now refers to "a symbol or image, picture or representation; anybody or anything venerated" - which is obviously a much broader definition.

An example of an Icon in Advertising is the face of Colonel Sanders for KFC.

The founder of the company and its face for tv campaigns throughout the 60's or 70s, over the years the colonel has transformed from this:

to this:

The image above obviously has no immediate reference to chicken, however it is a global signifier that fried chicken is available. 

A  'USA Today' report in 2010 produced the results that 61% of participants between the age of 18 and 25 didn't know who the face of KFC originally belonged to, assuming the 'Colonel Sanders' never actually existed and had been dreamt up by a creative in an office somewhere.

This is a perfect example of Iconography falling into the trap of simulacra, it has lost its original meaning, no longer reflecting the man behind an incredible enterprise, but rather the enterprise itself and the culture it belongs to, as decided by the media.