20.500.12556/RUL-136345 The nation as an imagined commodity branding ‘Melania’ The article uses the case of Melania Trump, the former First Lady of the United States, to analyse the discursive strategies through which the print media in Slovenia represented ‘Melania’ as an ethnically born Slovenian on a national scale. The article also demonstrates how patriotism, based on the love and feelings of belonging to the Slovenian nation-state, was nationalized in the case of ‘Melania’. The main argument is that numerous and repetitive media representations of ‘Melania’ aggressively put nationalism in the commercial context, and consequently transformed the nation into a commodity and an object of trade which can be sold and of which the Slovenians can make a profit. Consequently, the Slovenian press coverage of Melania Trump created her as a national brand meant to perform on the local, national market when merging emotional attitudes with commercial allure. The article concludes with the discursive strategies such as representing ‘Melania’ as ‘ours’, as a tool to accelerate the country’s economic growth and as a branding strategy to sell the Slovenian landscape and culture and produce the Slovenian nation as an imagined commodity. Furthermore, such branding of the nation is directed towards domestic rather than international audiences. commodification ethnocentrism First Lady ideology Melania Trump nationalism nation as commodity nation branding patriotism Slovenia branding marketing mass media Melania Trump oblikovanje blagovne znamke množični mediji etnocentrizem nacionalizem patriotizem Slovenija true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2022-04-25 13:13:21 2022-04-25 13:13:24 2023-02-17 03:34:12 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2022 0 0 Str. 703-722 iss. 2 Vol. 25 Apr. 2022 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 316.7(497.4):929Trump M. 1367-5494 10.1177/13675494211014910 65774851 Pusnik_Jontes_EJCS.pdf Pusnik_Jontes_EJCS.pdf 1 4205422151631D4C9D8490ACD2D4871D 518a135eac5cd9a655392ef86b6c8ccf0a89dab96396b6e1665943c7b5c56011 de89b14a-c488-11ec-8aca-00155dcfd717 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=155938 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13675494211014910 0 92740648-addd-11ed-9c94-00155dcfd717 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=166644 Fakulteta za družbene vede 0 0 0