The secular liturgy of the shopping mall is designed to call forth and cultivate certain desires within those who enter the mall. It promises to deliver personal fulfillment through purchasing. In Smith’s telling, advertising images of beautiful people convey the subliminal message that you could be just as happy and attractive as they are if you would purchase the product. If the mall liturgy does what it is supposed to do, the desire that the images and rituals of shopping evoke will lead the shopper to exchange money for products, then leave the mall fulfilled—until longing
