Fads, Icons, Trends and a Vampire

What is a fad? What is a trend? What is an icon?
In class, we discussed the differences between fad, trends and icons. Several questions had arisen upon the differences between them.
I think an example of a fad would be Guitar Hero (all copyrights reserved), in school, for a brief amount of time (a few months) Guitar Hero was all the rage. I heard discussions, conversations and the like on the subject. Now, about two or three years later, I have yet to hear a discussion at all relating to Guitar Hero.
Hmm... Icons... What of icons? Well, I think that icons are a broad term. There are many different icons in the world. Icons represent things, objects, companies, and so on. Some are well known, such as a four leaf clover representing luck. Some are a bit more obscure or implied, such as red lipstick representing lust.
Trends, to me are a bit harder to define. In my mind, they stand as a middle point. Where icons last for many years, and fads fizzle out into the murky lands of obscurity; leaving trends somewhere between the two. There have been some trends I can think of, none of which have been "in my time''. When I hear of trends, as shameful as I think of it; I think of the 60s' where it was all flower power, peace signs and the like.

Food for thought

      Is it possible that we, as people in North America, are too immersed in labels? Look around in school, and perhaps everywhere. Virtually everyday we are bombarded by the slogans and trademarks of companies; we see it on our clothing, on books, school supplies, on bottles, boxes and the like. I understand that copyrights and so on play a factor; but what I'm most concerned about, is how it could affect people.
Since we're constantly being exposed to advertisements, I feel that we have became desensitized to how it influences our minds and ergo, our behaviour. How do we know that we are not influenced by advertisements already?
Advertisements at heart, are meant to appeal or decieve people into buying or supporting their product, and over the years, these ads have become very efficient at drawing people's attention. That is understandable with the many different ways of communicating with one another. These days, I think that advertisements have become hyper-aggresive when you compare it to any other time in history. With that being said, what will happen in the future?

My first post

TO BE CONTINUED