The nation as an imagined commodity : branding ‘Melania’

Pušnik, Maruša (avtor), Jontes, Dejan (avtor)

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.

• Jezik: Angleški jezik
• Ključne besede: commodification, ethnocentrism, First Lady, ideology, Melania Trump, nationalism, nation as commodity, nation branding, patriotism, Slovenia, branding, marketing, mass media
• Vrsta gradiva: Članek v reviji
• Tipologija: 1.01 - Izvirni znanstveni članek
• Organizacija: FDV - Fakulteta za družbene vede
• Status publikacije: Objavljeno
• Različica publikacije: Objavljena publikacija
• Leto izida: 2022
• Št. strani: Str. 703-722
• Številčenje: Vol. 25, iss. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-136345
• UDK: 316.7(497.4):929Trump M.
• ISSN pri članku: 1367-5494
• DOI: 10.1177/13675494211014910
• COBISS.SI-ID: 65774851
• Datum objave v RUL: 25.04.2022

Gradivo je del revije

• Naslov: European journal of cultural studies
• Založnik: SAGE
• ISSN: 1367-5494
• COBISS.SI-ID: 17494365

Licence

• Licenca: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Priznanje avtorstva 4.0 Mednarodna
• Povezava: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.sl
• Opis: To je standardna licenca Creative Commons, ki daje uporabnikom največ možnosti za nadaljnjo uporabo dela, pri čemer morajo navesti avtorja.

Sekundarni jezik

• Jezik: Slovenski jezik
• Ključne besede: Melania Trump, oblikovanje blagovne znamke, množični mediji, etnocentrizem, nacionalizem, patriotizem, Slovenija

Projekti

• Financer: ARRS - Agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije
• Številka projekta: P6-0400
• Naslov: Družbena pogodba v 21. stoletju