Cultural icon
Some writers say that the terms "icon" and "iconic" have been overused.  A writer in Liverpool Daily Post calls "iconic" "a word that makes my flesh creep", a word "pressed into service to describe almost anything".  The Christian Examiner added "iconic" and "amazing" to its list of overused words. It found over 18,000 "iconic" references in news stories alone, with another 30,000 for "icon", including use of it for SpongeBob SquarePants.