Politics, communication, and consumer discourses: Bolsonaro Store and conservative mobilization

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the discursive strategies used by Bolsonaro Store, a platform created to market products in tribute to former president Jair Bolsonaro, to promote consumption. Drawing on the theoretical-methodological foundations of French discourse analysis, this study explores how the store’s Instagram posts articulate political consumption, communication, and base mobilization. The analysis of the 301 posts revealed that the products sold function as ideological symbols and memory devices, interpellating the addressee to perform a conservative and patriotic identity through a manichean and essentialist lens. The study further shows how these commodities materialize discursive strategies of continuous engagement, anchored in a logic of personality cult, political polarization, and permanent mobilization. In doing so, the article discusses contemporary aspects of political consumption in the reproduction and circulation of conservative discourses, focusing on a discursive scene constructed around narratives of memory, belonging, opposition, and provocation.

KEYWORDS
communication; consumption; politics; discourse