Shouldnt you be boycotting coors?”: Ephemera, boycotting counterpublics, and the campaign against coors beer

Abstract

This article argues for the comprehensive and serious treatment of movement ephemera as meaning-making and solidarity-building objects. It uses the boycott of Coors beer as an example of successful and persistent consumer activism in the United States in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. It focuses on the crucial roles that ephemeral memorabilia, such as leaflets, bumper stickers, buttons, and T-shirts, played in providing unifying and motivating narratives that transformed the Coors boycott from an instrumental to an expressive and long-lasting effort. These ephemera helped to forge a boycott counterpublic that extended from California to New York by the late 1980s.