Consumer Nationalism and Barr's Irn-Bru in Scotland

This book connects a detailed analysis of Irn-Bru's brand identity over time to theories of national identity, consumer studies, and banal nationalism. It situates the commercial history of Barr's Irn-Bru in a transnational context and shows how Irn-Bru has become a symbol of Scotland through processes of rewriting, reframing and institutionalized forgetting, linking the consumption of what began as a trans-national generic product to a specific national community. As such, Leishman presents a longitudinal, cross-disciplinary approach to analysing branding and advertising as multi-modal forms of discourse, in order to underline the role of commercial, non-state actors and popular consumerism in the phenomenon of banal nationalism. It will be of interest to students and scholars researching nationalism, consumption, and Scottish studies.

Auteur

David Leishman is Senior Lecturer in Applied English at Grenoble Alpes University, France.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. The Power of Origins.- 3. From Girders: Discourses of National Strength.- 4. Consumer Nationalism in Popular and Material Culture.- 5. Scotland's Other: Defining Oppositional Identities.- 6. Conclusion