Abstract

As the United States confronts political and economic turmoil, corporate marketers and political leaders encourage citizen-consumers to shop to keep the economy growing. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between consumption and citizenship in American culture and to understand how consumers make sense of buy-domestic advocacy and advertising appeals to patriotism. The study used semi-structured in-depth interviews to investigate how consumers conceptualize patriotic consumption; the ethnic, age and professional profiles of the 18 participants represented diverse voices and experiences. The study participants viewed the free market as an essential site for consumers to reaffirm core American values and citizenship. Whereas they believed that consumption had a positive collective impact on the economic system, they regarded saving as a self-centered practice. Framed by issues of corporate outsourcing and trade deficit, patriotism, rather than nationalism, is the driving factor contributing to consumer ethnocentrism, and consumers regard the purchase of domestic products as an altruistic helping behavior.

 Key words: Patriotic advertising, consumer ethnocentrism, buy-domestic, citizenship.