{"id":6428,"date":"2014-09-05T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=6428"},"modified":"2014-08-26T02:44:20","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T07:44:20","slug":"skoals-imagined-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2014\/09\/05\/skoals-imagined-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Skoal’s Imagined Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flashback Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n

Benedict Anderson famously coined the phrase “imagined community” to describe the way that large groups of people without direct contact could nonetheless think of themselves as a meaningful group.\u00a0 He originally discussed this in the context of nations.\u00a0 In his book<\/a>, he writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It is imagined<\/em> because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion… it is imagined as a community<\/em>, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whenever someone refers to “Americans,” he or she is conjuring up this idea of an imagined community.\u00a0 Why do we feel that we have so much in common with other Americans?\u00a0\u00a0 We will only meet a very small percentage of Americans in our lifetimes.\u00a0 We have things in common with some other Americans, but very little in common with still others.\u00a0 And, in many important ways, we are probably more like certain segments of other societies (e.g., individuals in the middle class in the U.S., for example, are probably more like those in\u00a0the middle class in the U.K. than they are like very poor or very rich Americans).<\/p>\n

Others have used Benedict Anderson’s term to describe other kinds of imagined communities.\u00a0 Apparently Skoal is hoping that\u00a0“dippers” will find a sense of comraderie and devotion to each other (“loyalty”) and the product through the imagining of a Skoal community (“Brotherhood”):<\/p>\n

\"03-011\"<\/p>\n

Text:<\/p>\n

OUR 75th ANNIVERSARY IS ALL ABOUT YOU.<\/p>\n

75 years ago we created Skoal Smokeless Tobacco.\u00a0 And on that day, dippers created something else: A Brotherhood.<\/p>\n

Guys who share a love of quality dip.\u00a0 Enjoyed the finest way possible.
\nIt’s something we never could have anticipated.\u00a0 And something we’re honored to be a part of.
\nThat’s why, instead of making our 75th anniversary about us, we’re making it about you.<\/p>\n

2009 is the Year of the Dipper.\u00a0 And we’ve come up with some pretty big ways to celebrate it.\u00a0 And we’re not just talking cake.
\nSo keep an eye out.\u00a0 And a pinch ready.
\nYou’ve been giving us your business — and your loyalty — since 1934.
\nIt’s time you got some thanks in return.<\/p>\n

SKOAL
\nWELCOME TO THE BROTHERHOOD<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Originally posted in 2009.<\/em><\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flashback Friday. Benedict Anderson famously coined the phrase “imagined community” to describe the way that large groups of people without direct contact could nonetheless think of themselves as a meaningful group.\u00a0 He originally discussed this in the context of nations.\u00a0 In his book, he writes: It is imagined because the members of even the smallest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":63507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,2087,276,1890,293,37],"class_list":["post-6428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-nationalismpatriotism","tag-smokingtobacco","tag-social-construction","tag-social-psychology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6428"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63508,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6428\/revisions\/63508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}