A cultural icon can be a symbol, logo, picture, name, face, person, building or other image that is readily recognized and generally represents an object or concept with great cultural significance to a wide cultural group. A representation of an object or person, or that object or person may come to be regarded as having a special status as particularly representative of, or important to, or loved by, a particular group of people, a place, or a period in history.

In the media, many well-known manifestations of popular culture have been described as "iconic". Some writers say that the word is overused.

Brands can reflect social values and changes, but many people have become weary of them. Many brands aspire to become cultural icons, but fail. Cultural icons are often timeless, imprinted in our consciousness. They can go through several stages, from "rumblings, undercurrents" via "catharsis, explosion" and "mass acceptance, ripple effect" to "glorification, representative value". While brands are rational and driven by features, cultural icons are emotional, free, driven by feeling, and creating emotional bonds. An example of "branding" might include the wearing of a consistent fashion look by such music stars as Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley, and female Madonna (entertainer), Britney Spears and Marilyn Monroe. Royal trappings or church garb could also be understood as a form of emotional iconography.

Yehoram Gaon (Hebrew: יהורם גאון) (informally, Yoram Gaon) (born December 28, 1939) is a Jewish Israeli singer, actor, director, producer, TV and radio host, and public figure. He has also written and edited books on Israeli culture.

The son of Sephardic Jewish parents—a Macedonian father and Turkish mother, both immigrants to Israel—he became an early inspiration of "solidarity and pride" for the Sephardic community.

Gaon was born in the Beit Hakerem section of Jerusalem in 1939. His father, Moshe-David Gaon, a well-known historian, was born in Sarajevo in 1889, and immigrated to British mandate Palestine, where members of his family had lived for five generations. He was a school master and Hebrew teacher in areas that included Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, and Izmir, Turkey. He was also a poet and a scholar of Ladino. In Turkey, he met and married Sara Hakim,^{[citation needed]} returning with her to Jerusalem.

Yehoram enlisted in the IDF in 1957.^{[citation needed]} In the military, he joined the Nahal entertainment troupe, beginning a career in the performing arts that would eventually bring him fame as both a singer and actor.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Obama attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School before returning to Chicago and to work at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her future husband. Subsequently, she worked as part of the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Throughout 2007 and 2008, she helped campaign for her husband's presidential bid and delivered a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She is the mother of two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and is the sister of Craig Robinson, men's basketball coach at Oregon State University. As the wife of a Senator, and later the First Lady, she has become a fashion icon and role model for women, and an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition and healthy eating.

Judy Blume (née Sussman; born February 12, 1938) is an American author. She has written many novels for children and young adults which have exceeded sales of 80 million and been translated into 31 languages. Blume's novels for teenagers were among the first to tackle racism (Iggie's House), menstruation (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.), divorce (It's Not the End of the World, Just As Long As We're Together), bullying (Blubber), masturbation (Deenie; Then Again, Maybe I Won't) and teen sex (Forever). Blume has used these subjects to generate discussion, but they have also been the source of controversy regarding age-appropriate reading.

Judy Blume’s classic 1981 novel Tiger Eyes will be on the big screen. The film version of the novel, directed by the author's son Lawrence Blume, is starring Willa Holland as Davey and Amy Jo Johnson as Gwen Wexler. The Tiger Eyes movie is currently in production with a projected release date sometime in 2012.

Blume was born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey to Esther (née Rosenfeld), a homemaker, and Ralph Sussman, a dentist. She has a brother, David, who is five years older. Blume later recalled, "I spent most of my childhood making up stories inside of my head." She graduated from Battin High School in 1956, then enrolled in Boston University. In the first semester, she was diagnosed with mononucleosis and took a brief leave from school before graduating from New York University in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in teaching.

Zakes Mda, legally Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda (b. 1948), is a South African novelist, poet and playwright. He has won major South African and British literary awards for his novels and plays.

Zanemvula Mda was born in Herschel, South Africa in 1948. He studied in South Africa, Lesotho and the United Kingdom. He worked in these countries as well.

When he started publishing, he adopted the pen name of Zakes Mda. In addition to writing novels and plays, he has taught English and creative writing in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Most recently, he came to the United States, where he became a professor in the English Department at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He has been a visiting professor at Yale and the University of Vermont.

Zakes Mda is a founding member and currently (as of 2011) serves on the advisory board of African Writers Trust, "a non-profit entity which seeks to coordinate and bring together African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent to promote sharing of skills and other resources, and to foster knowledge and learning between the two groups."