To make something into a commodity, sometimes at the expense of its intrinsic value.
2009, January 17, John R. MacArthur, Hope as a commodity, Since Puritan times, America has declared itself exceptional in the eyes of God and man – that great sloganeer Ronald Reagan cribbed from Lincoln's famous phrase when he called it "the last best hope of man on earth" – and ... it's only in America that a lovely feeling such as hope can be commodified so expertly, so cynically.
