Diving deep into the world of corporate marketing, this incisive and eye-opening work shows how, in the hands of the corporation, business has become manipulative, divisive and disastrously at odds with the needs of the natural world. It calls on us to rethink and rebel.
The corporate marketing blitz is driven by a simple economic truth: profits depend on demand always exceeding supply. A multi-billion-dollar global industry has therefore been created with the sole aim of turning us into devout consumers. Gerard Hastings invites us to explore alternatives to a system that is threatening our survival. He explores what it is to be human, how marketing can be used to do good rather than harm and the potential of alternative models that empower us to be citizens, not just consumers.
Professionals and students in the business, marketing, public health, environmental and political sectors – as well as concerned citizens who know that business as usual is not an option – will value this accessible guide to what is going wrong with our current business models and how these failings can be addressed.
Author(s): Gerard Hastings
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 137
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Introduction: Human Beings Not Customers
Section 1: The Corporate Marketing Machine
The Age of Rebellion
Section 2: We Shall Overcome
Part I The Corporate Marketing Machine
Chapter 1 Original Sin: The Spawning of Corporate Marketing
Of Confidence Tricks and Rebellion
There Is Business and There Is Big Business
Enter the Corporation
Charm School for Psychopaths
Grab for Power
Corporate Marketing: “New Improved Advertising”
The Reality of Corporate Marketing
Time to Rebel
Chapter 2 Advertising and the Art of Organised Lying
The Truth About Advertising
A Good Liar Knows Her Mark
Tirelessly Studying Us
Of Cowboys and Weasel Words
Marketing Communications
Olympian Lying
Branding: The Crack Cocaine of Organised Lying
Advertising Works
Meanwhile, What About Michael and Morag?
100 Years of Mind Control
Chapter 3 The Machinery of Marketing
Getting Down to Business
Divide and Conquer
The Product: All Stuff and Nonsense
The Silent Salesman
The Price of Everything
Beware of the BOGOF
A Place for Everything
Convenience Shopping
Back to the Brand
Michael and Morag Run a Simpler Ship
Buying More and Buying In
Chapter 4 Grooming the Next Generation
Innocence Is So Profitable
Marketing to Babies
Marketing to Toddlers
Marketing to Tweens
Marketing to Teens
Turning Beer Into Social Glue
A Culture of Consumption
Playing in Traffic
An Older Wisdom
A Younger Wisdom
Michael and Morag’s Wisdom
The Child Is Father of the Man
Chapter 5 Surveillance Capitalism
The Perfect Consumer
The Internet Dream
Clicks and Confessionals
The Tender Trap
It’s All About the Data
Widening the Net
Amazon: Customer Heaven; Citizen Hell
From Bad to Metaverse
Michael and Morag Unplugged
Escaping the Cage
Chapter 6 Marketing, Power, and the Demise of Democracy
Julius Caesar: The First Corporate Marketer
Profit Over People
Politics Is a Strategic Necessity for a Corporation
Charm to the Rescue
The Parable of the Bad Samaritan
Critical Deficit
Political Deficit
Michael and Morag’s CSR: Community, Service, and Really Good Fruit and Veg
This Is About Power
Part II We Shall Overcome
Chapter 7 Deep in My Heart
When Hope and History Rhyme
Human Beings Not Consumers
If This Is a Man
Fairtrade
Revolution
Learning From the Abolitionists
And So to Human Rights
The Right to Be a Nuisance
Thinking Like an Ecosystem
Riding Heaney’s Tidal Wave
Chapter 8 We’ll Walk Hand in Hand
Down at the King’s Head
Marketing for the Angels
Rethinking Corporate Marketing
Fewer and Better Products
Aynuk’s ‘Ammer
People and Planet-Centred Advertising
Price and Place
Coming Back Brockens
Michael, Morag, and Mary Are Beautiful
Reclaiming the Devil’s Tunes
How to Sell Brotherhood Like Soap
Changing for the Better
Chapter 9 The Whole Wide World Around
We Need to Talk About Capitalism
Wise Victims
Determined Culprits
Indigenous Partners
A New Planting
Notes
Introduction
1 Original Sin
2 Advertising and the Art of Organised Lying
3 The Machinery of Marketing
4 Grooming the Next Generation
5 Surveillance Capitalism
6 Marketing, Power, and the Demise of Democracy
7 Deep in My Heart
8 We’ll Walk Hand in Hand
9 The Whole Wide World Around
Index
