Nationalizing discourses and practices of consumption combine cultural, economic, and political dimensions of nationhood. They actively share in the never finished processes of nationalization and de-nationalization. The economic crisis, the political goal of an independent nation-state or of fully achieved national sovereignty boost nationalizing product communication.
Promotional and journalistic texts, as well as propaganda by governmental and para-governmental bodies, are the most conspicuous part of this discourse.
It remains a lot harder to reconstruct the communicative actions of ordinary consumers. However, it is possible to show that nationalizing communication in advertising or buy-national campaigns linked up with broader discourses about the nation and that actors beyond the immediate reach of the government or of business interest groups took up their concerns.
Consumer goods belong to the ÒbanalÓ forms of nationalismÑbanal but neither necessarily harmless nor inoffensive. And yet again neither necessarily harmful or offensive.
The analysis of such nationalizing product discourses is an excellent instrument for tackling the fact that the nation may be a mythological construction but that it has a hold even on people who consider themselves as enlightened, liberal citizens and who are convinced that they do not easily fall prey to narrow-minded nationalism.
In short, a good case can be made for integrating research into the history of consumption and nationalism studies into the attempt to elucidate the interaction of products, brands, and nations