Globalization, corporate nationalism and masculinity in Canada: sport, Molson beer advertising and consumer citizenship

Abstract

Within the context of globalization, nations have increasingly become the object of both production and consumption. Consequently, directly or indirectly citizens are being conceptualized, appealed to and transformed into consumers. A key driving force in this transformation is the diverse range of multinational corporations (MNCs) that engage in what is referred to as corporate nationalism – a process that seeks to capitalize upon the nation as a source of collective identification. This paper sets forth to explore (1) the nature and significance of corporate nationalism within the context of globalization; (2) the nature and significance of the ‘holy trinity’ – sport, beer and masculinity; (3) a case study of one specific Molson Canadian beer advertising campaign to illustrate how it serves as a manual of both masculinity and national identity in Canada; (4) the role of cultural intermediaries in reproducing dominant forms of masculinity; and (5) the implications of corporate nationalism and the holy trinity for understanding the reproduction of masculinity in an increasingly global world.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the guest editor and Sarah Gee for their helpful feedback on this paper and the anonymous reviewers of earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

^2.Trentmann, ‘Citizenship and Consumption’, 147.

^3.Silk, Andrews, and Cole, Sport and Corporate Nationalisms, 7.

^4.Jackson, ‘Reading New Zealand’.

^5. See du Gay et al., Doing Cultural Studies.

^6.Wenner and Jackson, Sport, Beer, and Gender.

^7.Collins and Vamplew, Mud, Sweat and Beers.

^8.Strate, ‘Beer Commercials’.

^9. Cf. Appadurai, ‘Disjuncture and Difference’; Hall, ‘Introduction’; Hardt and Negri, Empire; Hirst and Thompson, Globalization in Question; Hopper, Understanding Cultural Globalization; , Economic Fundamentalism; Reclaiming Future; Ritzer, McDonaldization of Society; McDonaldization; Robertson, Globalization; ‘Glocalization’; and Turner and Khondker, Globalization East and West.

^10.Bell, Inventing New Zealand; Levitt, ‘Globalization of Markets’; Perry, Dominion of Signs; and Ritzer, McDonaldization of Society.

^11.Wenner and Jackson, Sport, Beer, and Gender.

^12.Archetti, Masculinities: Football; Bairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization; Cronin and Mayall, Sporting Nationalisms; Gruneau and Whitson, Hockey Night in Canada; Holt, Sport and the British; and Whitson and Gruneau, Artificial Ice.

^13.Nylund, Beer, Babes and Balls.

^14.Law, Campbell, and Dolan, Masculinities in Aotearoa/New Zealand; Seiler, ‘Selling Patriotism/Selling Beer’; and Wilson, Drinking Cultures.

^15.Jackson, ‘Reading New Zealand’; John and Jackson, ‘Call Me Loyal’; , ‘Corporate Nationalism and Glocalization of Nike Advertising’; Kobayashi, ‘Globalization, Corporate Nationalism and Japanese Cultural Intermediaries’; Scherer and Jackson, Globalization, Sport and Corporate Nationalism; and Silk, Andrews, and Cole, Sport and Corporate Nationalisms.

^16.Gruneau and Whitson, Hockey Night in Canada, 251.

^17.Bairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization, 175.

^18.Jhally, ‘Cultural Studies and the Sports/Media Complex’.

^19.Maguire, ‘Globalization, Sport Development, and the Media/Sport’; and Rowe, Sport, Culture and the Media.

^20.Horne, Sport in Consumer Culture; Jackson, ‘Reflections on Communication and Sport’; Jackson and Andrews, ‘Sport, Culture and Advertising’.

^21.Cronin, Advertising and Consumer Citizenship; ‘Regimes of Mediation’; Goldman, Reading Ads Socially; Goldman and Papson, Sign Wars; Moor, ‘Branding Consultants as Cultural Intermediaries’; Nixon, Advertising Cultures.

^22.Frow and Morris, ‘Cultural Studies’; and McDonald and Birrell, ‘Reading Sport Critically’.

^23.Burstyn, Rites of Men.

^24.Messner, Sport, Men and Gender.

^25.Sabo and Jansen, ‘Prometheus Unbound’, 211.

^26.Babor, Alcohol; Collins and Vamplew, Mud, Sweat and Beers; Gee and Jackson, ‘Southern Man City’; Gee and Jackson, ‘Leisure Corporations, Beer Brand Culture, and the Crisis of Masculinity’; Palmer, ‘Key Themes and Research Agendas’; Wenner and Jackson, Sport, Beer, and Gender; and Wilson, Drinking Cultures.

^27.Scott, ‘Beer’, 60–1.

^28.Scott, ‘Beer’.

^29.Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, Youth Exposure to Television Advertising.

^30. Ibid.

^31.Collins and Vamplew, Mud, Sweat and Beers, 123–4.

^32.Strate, ‘Beer Commercials’.

^33. Ibid., 78.

^34. Ibid.

^35.McCracken, ‘Value of the Brand’, 131.

^36. ‘Molson Canadian’, 2.

^37. Labatt's Breweries belongs to Anheuser-Busch InBev, ‘one of one of the world's top-5 consumer products companies, that manages a portfolio of well over 200 beer brands and holds the No. 1 or No. 2 market position in 19 countries’.

^38. For a range of reasons that may never quite fully be understood, there was a strong sense of Canadian nationalism (re)emerging at the beginning of the new millennium.

^39. Cf. MacGregor, ‘I am Canadian’; and Manning, ‘I AM CANADIAN Identity’.

^40. B. Garfield, ‘Blame Canada and Molson for Brilliant Rant at States’, 8 May 2000, http://www.adage.com/news_and_features/ad_review/archives/ar20000508.html

^41.Millard, Riegel, and Wright, ‘Here's Where We Get Canadian’.

^42. Ibid., 15.

^43. It has been suggested that Molson got the idea for the ‘I am Canadian’ campaign from a song by David Hook titled ‘I'm Canadian’, which can be traced back to at least 1994 and whose lyrics contain many of the references in the beer commercial.

^44.Wilson, Drinking Cultures, 12.

^45.Gee, ‘Mythical Ice Hockey Hero’; and Whitson and Gruneau, Artificial Ice. This is despite the enormous success of the Canadian Women's ice hockey team in the Olympics and World Championships and the massive growth of female ice hockey in Canada.

^46. J. Lloyd, ‘New Molson Canadian Platform is in the Code’, April 15, 2008, http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/creative/featuredcampaign/article.jsp?content = 20080502_162053_9768

^47. www.youtube.com/watch?v = XAwg71Gg9ek

^48.www.youtube.com/watch?v = i4cIDO1w4Bw&NR = 1

^49.www.youtube.com/watch?v = aQL0Q6EvdH0

^50.www.youtube.com/watch?v = TRvwWcUsrE8&NR = 1

^51.Strate, ‘Beer Commercials’.

^52. ‘Williams Reviews That New Molson Canadian Advertisement’, January 13, 2009, http://maxandwilliams.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/williams-reviews-that-new-molson-canadian-advertisement/

^53. Lloyd, ‘New Molson Canadian Platform’.

^54.Atkinson, Deconstructing Men & Masculinities; Clare, On Men; Edwards, Cultures of Masculinity; and Gee, ‘Mythical Ice Hockey Hero’.

^55.West, ‘Negotiating Masculinities’.

^56.Cronin, ‘Regimes of Mediation’; McFall, ‘What About the Old Cultural Intermediaries?’; and Moor, ‘Branding Consultants as Cultural Intermediaries’.

^57.du Gay, Cultures of Production.

^58.Negus, ‘Work of Cultural Intermediaries’.

^59.Nixon, Advertising Cultures; and Nixon and Crewe, ‘Pleasure at Work?’.

^60.Nagel, ‘Masculinity and Nationalism’, 258–9.

^61.Messerschmidt, ‘And Now, the Rest of the Story’, 106 (emphasis in original).

^62.Connell and Messerschmidt, ‘Hegemonic Masculinity’, 849.

^63.Edwards, Cultures of Masculinity, 43.

^64.Holt and Thompson, ‘Man-of-Action Heroes’, 426.

^65. Cf. Demetriou, ‘Connell's Concept of Hegemonic Masculinity’; Moller, ‘Exploiting Patterns’; Hooper, ‘Masculinities in Transition’.

^66. Connell, ‘Masculinity Politics on a World Scale’, 369.

^67. Connell, ‘Masculinity Politics on a World Scale’, 53–4.