This paper aims at investigating why individuals make the decision to abandon a category in different contexts of stimulation and questioning of consumption. For this study, the product categories car and cigarette were selected, taking into account contents from the advertising system. In the case of cars, these contents mainly concern reinforcement of consumption; with regard to smoking, the questioning of consumption predominates (due to the Brazilian government's anti-smoking campaigns and ban on tobacco industry advertising). This research uses a qualitative methodology for the collection and analysis of data obtained through in-depth interviews with 29 consumers (ex-smokers and ex-car owners). The paper contributes to the literature on anti-consumption characterizing three different types of abandonment and suggesting that, more than a move away from negative meanings to protect selfesteem (HOGG et al., 2009), abandonment is also likely to promote affirmative, positive, differentiation and to reinforce self-esteem. This research shows that, like consumption, abandonment is able to construct identities and signalize important changes. Contingency abandonment occurs when the individual, despite sharing meanings with other consumers of a category, is forced to abandon consumption. Positional abandonment is driven mainly by the rejection of symbolic associations that consumption provides. Finally, ideological abandonment presents a collective perspective where the individual believes that society as a whole should abandon or reassess that kind of consumption.
Anti-consumption; Abandonment; Cigarette; Car
