Fair enough: and yet people in every age and culture have always hunted for ways to acquire social cachet.

ECONOMIST: Brands

More than anything, however, it is the academic reputation and social cachet of the older American institutions that inspires copycats.

ECONOMIST: Arabs don't like American policy but do like its education

They disapprove of the vapid notion that spending more on a soft drink or ice cream can bring happiness or social cachet.

ECONOMIST: Brands

Like the social cachet that comes with having a central London telephone number (020 7), a postcode can mean so much to so many.

BBC: NW1 is the current residence of actor Jude Law