Historians have often struggled to interpret the relation of the political revolts of 1968 to the consumer revolutions of the era. Was ‘1968’ the product of consumerism or a revolt against it? Was political revolt defeated by the hedonistic appeals of consumer society? Did the revolts of 1968 only pave the way for consumerist individualism, a society in which revolution itself was marketised and sold back to it participants? This paper analyses the multiple and contradictory meanings and practices of consumerism in the revolts and aftermath of 1968 in Western Europe, with particular attention to how advertising was appropriated by revolutionaries and how advertisers appropriated revolution.

Ben Mercer is Senior Lecturer in the School of History at the Australian National University. He is the author of Student Revolt in 1968: France, Italy and West Germany (CUP, 2020). He is currently researching a book on political violence in Western Europe in the 1970s.

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