KEVIN07: Cool Politics, Consumer Citizenship, and the Specter of 'Americanization' in Australia
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2011
Journal / Book Title
Communication, Culture & Critique
Abstract
In this essay I examine the case study of 'KEVIN07' t-shirts, which became a brief sensation-as well as a locus of debate regarding the influence of 'American' consumerism-during the 2007 Australian federal election. This phenomenon can be understood as both an example of a broad international trend toward the appropriation of consumer citizenship by formal political institutions and also as a localized and very particular instantiation of this trend that reveals a great deal about the Australian political and cultural context. Through an in-depth analysis of how 'KEVIN07' t-shirts both capitulate to and negotiate the logic of consumer capitalism, I build upon the field of scholarship that has examined processes of hybridity in the so-called 'Americanization' of Australia.
DOI
10.1111/j.1753-9137.2010.01094.x
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Penney, Joel, "KEVIN07: Cool Politics, Consumer Citizenship, and the Specter of 'Americanization' in Australia" (2011). School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works. 19.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/scom-facpubs/19
Published Citation
Penney, J. (2011). KEVIN07: Cool Politics, Consumer Citizenship, and the Specter of “Americanization” in Australia. Communication, Culture & Critique, 4(1), 78–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-9137.2010.01094.x