Facemask: from pandemic to marketplace iconicity

As a result of Covid-19 outbreak, surgical facemasks first emerged as pandemic icon to then expand into marketplace icon, with substantial transformations in their meanings, uses, and commercial expressions. This essay contends that have become (post-)pandemic by articulating tensions the socio-cultural, public media, economic sphere. Relying upon secondary-data retrieved from mass media scientific articles boomed during pandemic, we propose theoretically eclectic appraisal (1) facemasks’ iconisation, (2) distinct systems raising masks iconic status, (3) “Marketplace Icons” series more broadly.