The Selling of 9/11 : How a National Tragedy Became a Commodity

The Selling of 9/11 argues that the marketing and commodification of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, reveal the contradictory processes by which consumers in the United States (and around the world) use, communicate, and construct national identity and their sense of national belonging through cultural and symbolic goods. Contributors illuminate these processes and make important connections between myths of nation, practices of mourning, theories of trauma, and the politics of post-9/11 consumer culture. Their essays take critical stock of the role that consumer goods, media and press outlets, commercial advertising, marketers and corporate public relations have played in shaping cultural memory of a national tragedy. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction: Consuming 9/11....Pages 1-26 Wounded Nation, Broken Time....Pages 27-53 “Chosen to be Witness”: The Exceptionalism of 9/11....Pages 54-74 Advertisements for Itself: The New York Times, Norman Rockwell, and the New Patriotism....Pages 75-96 The Comfort Zone: Japan’s Media Marketing of 9/11....Pages 97-118 Entertainment Wars: Television Culture after 9/11....Pages 119-154 The Country Connection: Country Music, 9/11, and the War on Terrorism....Pages 155-173 “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore”: U.S. Consumers, Wal-Mart, and the Commodification of Patriotism....Pages 174-199 Mourning, Monomyth and Memorabilia: Consumer Logics of Collecting 9/11....Pages 200-220 Social Fear and the Terrorism Survival Guide....Pages 221-232 Home Invasion and Hollywood Cinema: David Fincher’s Panic Room....Pages 233-253 Cynical Nationalism....Pages 254-287 Back Matter....Pages 288-296