Commodity activism : cultural resistance in neoliberal times / edited by Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Commodity activism in neoliberal times / Sarah Banet-Weister and Roopali Mukherjee -- 1. Brand, culture, action -- Brand me "activist" / Alison Hearn -- "Free self-esteem tools?": brand culture, gender, and the Dove real beauty campaign / Sarah Banet-Weiser -- Citizen brand: ABC and the do good turn in US television / Laurie Ouellette -- Good housekeeping: green products and consumer activism / Jo Littler -- 2. Celebrity, commodity, citizenship -- Make it right? Brad Pitt, post-Katrina rebuilding, and the spectacularization of disaster / Kevin Fox Gotham -- Diamonds (are from Sierra Leone): bling and the promise of consumer citizenship / Roopali Mukherjee -- Salma Hayek's celebrity activism: constructing race, ethnicity, and gender as mainstream global commodities / Isabel Molina-Guzmán -- Mother Angelina: Hollywood philanthropy personified / Alison Trope -- "Fair-Vanity": the visual culture of humanitarianism in the age of commodity activism / Melissa M. Brough -- 3. Community, movements, politics -- Civic fitness: the body politics of commodity activism / Samantha King -- Eating for change / Josée Johnston and Kate Cairns -- Changing the world one organism at a time: sex positive retail activism / Lynn Comella -- Pay-for culture: television activism in a neo-liberal digital age / John McMurria -- Feeling good while buying goods: promoting commodity activism to Latina consumers / Mari Castañeda.

Buying (RED) products from Gap T-shirts to Apple to fight AIDS. Drinking a "Caring Cup" of coffee at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to support fair trade. Driving a Toyota Prius to fight global warming. All these commonplace activities point to a central feature of contemporary culture: the most common way we participate in social activism is by buying something. Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser have gathered an exemplary group of scholars to explore this new landscape through a series of case studies of "commodity activism." Drawing from television, film, consumer activist campaigns, and cultures of celebrity and corporate patronage, the essays take up examples such as the Dove "Real Beauty" campaign, sex positive retail activism, ABC's Extreme Home Makeover, and Angelina Jolie as multinational celebrity missionary. Exploring the complexities embedded in contemporary political activism, Commodity Activism reveals the workings of power and resistance as well as citizenship and subjectivity in the neoliberal era. Refusing to simply position politics in opposition to consumerism, this collection teases out the relationships between material cultures and political subjectivities, arguing that activism may itself be transforming into a branded commodity.