Forever a fan: Reflections on the branding of death and the production of value

Abstract

This article explores how the branding of death among ‘die-hard’ fans involves the production and articulation of multiple forms of value. Specifically, it asks: how do corporations attempt to increase their profits by harvesting the individual and collective sentiments of fans during mortuary rituals? What kind of work do branded funeral products do for die-hard fans? How might the branding of death facilitate new forms of remembering and even enable the deceased to remain in circulation among the living? It is argued that while the branding of death clearly enables corporations to augment their profits by appropriating the emotional investments of fans, it may also provide fans with a novel mechanism for expanding their own value by extending their remembered presence across space and time after death. This argument is developed in three movements. First, I engage with some of the recent literature on branding and value co-creation in the new economy. Then I draw upon studies of fan consumption to consider the forms of identification that animate the relationship between fans and brands. In the third section of the paper I explore the appeal of branded funeral products by returning to some anthropological writings on value transformation and gift exchange. The article concludes by considering what the branding of death reveals about the relations between consumption, identity, and memorialization within the context of contemporary capitalist society.

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