ABSTRACT
During the summer of 2016, the world’s citizens were awash with opportunities to engage with and participate in many captivating cultural rituals, here defined as aesthetic, performative, and symbolic public events occurring on a grand scale that are broadly accessible to consumers via mass and/or social media. From weeks-long celebrations that marked the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II throughout the Commonwealth, to the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics, to regional events such as the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, these symbol-laden, performative events connect consumers to sociocultural discourses, institutions, and values at the most macro level. Yet as popular as they can be (e.g., over 900 million people viewed or streamed the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics; Ormsby 2012), ritual studies within consumer research overwhelmingly emphasize those occurring between dyads (e.g., gift giving; Belk and Coon, 1993; Otnes, Lowrey and Kim 1993), within family and/or friendship groups (e.g., Bradford 2009; Epp and Price 2008; Wallendorf and Arnould 1991; Wooten 2000), or within self-contained social units such as brand or consumption subcultures (Belk and Costa 1998; Bradford and Sherry 2015; Kozinets 2002).
