Does support = material consumption?
Mukherjee and Banet-Weiser in Commodity activism: Cultural resistance in neoliberal times focus on the concept of commodity activism, defined as activism which becomes merchandised when shaped by capitalism. Commodity activism changes traditional activism because it deprives it of its true scope by pricing it. Through commodity activism, social action becomes commodified and people’s values become branded to make profit. Using propaganda, companies take advantage of people’s morals, persuading them to believe that buying their product will do good in the world. In the end, the buyer does not realize that he is only consuming more goods instead of helping change society.
The yellow vests movement, started in October 2018 in France, calls for better taxation reforms and social justice. Forms of activism performed by the movement can be understood along the lines of what the authors define "commodity activism", which has redefined the way in which the yellow vests protest. At the beginning of their demonstrations, yellow vests protested only in the streets. With the increase of the protest’s popularity, companies started to sell branded yellow vests products.
Today, protesters tend to believe that they are supporting the demonstration by just wearing a yellow vests t-shirt or by drinking from a yellow vests mug. Therefore, the yellow vests activism is now commodified. People are fooled into believing that buying yellow vests merchandise upholds yellow vests’ ethical principles. In reality, they are only contributing to the capitalistic system rooted in society.
(A) T-shirt with Lenin wearing a yellow vest
A relevant case study is the Lenin with yellow vest T-shirt (picture A) sold by society6.com. This product embraces all the values highlighted by the yellow vests protesters, while portraying a relevant Russian revolutionary figure (Lenin) wearing a yellow vest, with the communist symbol in the background. The company, society6.com uses these iconic words, colors and symbols in order to fool the buyer into purchasing their product. Buyers do so to show their support of the yellow vests cause fighting for freedom, fraternity and equality or even to show their support for communism. They are persuaded into consuming goods related to good causes because they think it equals fighting for these causes. However, the company is only taking advantage of their activism to make profit. It is through this process of exploitation of the consumer that the capitalistic system incorporates social movements into its consumerism.
