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e, but is one which has affected many people in employment. My former job was as a sales manager, responsible for sales in England and Wales, and involved much travelling. In this job I obviously required a company car so that I could visit clients. The representatives also needed cars. These representatives all drove standard model Ford Sierras, the archetypal 'reps car'. The car that I was given was a B.M.W.. Now, is there any difference between the functionality of a Sierra and a B.M.W.? Both cars had the same level of comfort and fulfilled the same basic need (mobility). My car was a little faster but less practical, and speed means nothing when stuck in traffic jams. The only reason, I believe, that I was given that car, was to fix my position in a hierarchical structure. It was a symbol of social prestation which appealed to an irrational code4. For Baudrillard then, the car would not be described as a creation of material production but as a product of the hierarchical culture of the company that I worked for, and the culture that the company existed in. The only value of the car was that it symbolised my position within a company and society itself. Symbolic exchange value is therefore the genesis of conspicuous consumption. Therefore objects, and the conspicuous 'waste' of resources (time, money, energy etc.), "no longer designate the world, but rather the being and social rank of their possessor" (Baudrillard,1981:32). 3.2. Simulation. The concept of simulation is central to Baudrillards theorising, indeed he devoted a whole book 'Simulations', to the subject. The core concept which Baudrillard bases his theory of simulation upon is the Simulacrum. The Simulacrum is the phenomena which hides the fact that there is no longer any reality. The Simulacrum is an inter-locking precession of simulacra, of simulation and of discourses that shape what we can objectively know about any phenomenon in our world. For Baudrillard, the Simulacrum is therefore the only truth5. Simulacra can exist at one of three levels; the first, second, or third order6, the distin ctions between them are made on the basis of three historical epochs and the theory of symbolic exchange value. The foundation of change between epochs is to be found in changes within the law of symbolic exchange value, which then equate to fundamental changes in the order of the simulacra. 3.3. First order simulacra. First order simulacra are based on counterfeit. This is copying rather than simulating an object. It was dominant during the renaissance period. Simulation during this era was not abundant and each sign had clarity of meaning attached. Each sign was distinct from other signs. Each sign represented a particular position in hierarchy and each sign's exchange value was known by the populous. However those who could counterfeit were able to change their circumstances and therefore their position in the social hierarchy. It is important to remember at this point that it is discourse that creates our knowledge of, and the meanings we attach to, an object and consequently defines the position that we place the object's possessor in (according to the law of symbolic exchange value). Thus, we assume that a person who wears Armani suits holds a different position in hierarchy than one who wears a suit from C&A. However, what Baudrillard neglects here is the aspect of a persons resources as well as their ability to choose which suit they wear. 3.4. Second order simula