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9/11 in the Service of Corporate Rhetoric: Southwest Airlines’ 2001 Letter to Shareholders

Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Russell J. Craig

Australian National University

This article highlights the capacity for ideograph-like signs that are deeply embedded in cultural consciousness to be appropriated for the purpose of sustaining the rhetorical agendas of corporations. Focus is applied to the events of September 11, 2001, and to the use of the term 9/11 in the text of a letter to share-holders, signed by the corporate leaders of Southwest Airlines and published in that company’s annual report for 2001. We illustrate how corporate leaders appropriate symbolic representations of national life.

Key Words: rhetoric • corporations • corporate rhetoric • rhetorical agendas • 9/11 • 911 • September 11 • CEOs • shareholders • ideographs • symbolic representation

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