Selling democracy: Consumer culture and citizenship in the wake of September 11

Abstract

Contemporary public discourse often defines citizenship with language of consumer capitalism. In the wake of September 11, 2001 corporations moved swiftly to assert the relation between consumption and citizenship. Drawing on a close reading of advertisements addressing the attack published in the New York Times, I argue that within the first month after September 11, corporate advertisers created identification between corporations and America such that the health of corporations was part of the health of the nation. Advertisers utilized this identification to argue that enacting consumption was a central mode of practicing patriotic citizenship. The advertisements, then, served to create consumer citizens through the civic duty of shopping.

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