This book narrates the integration of consumer culture into transnational human rights advocacy
and explores its political impact. By examining tactics that include benefit concerts graphic
imagery of suffering and branded outreach campaigns the book details the evolution of human
rights into a mainstream moral cause. Drawing inspiration from the critical theory of the
Frankfurt School the author argues that these strategies are effective in attracting masses of
supporters but weaken the viability of human rights by commodifying its practices. Consumer
capitalism co-opts the public's moral awakening and transforms its desire for global engagement
into components of a lifestyle expressed through market transactions and commercial
relationships rather than political commitments. Reclaiming human rights as a subversive idea
can reconnect the practice of human rights with its principles and generate a movement bound to
the radical spirit of human rights.
