Table Of Content

Hyperconsumption 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 crass 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. Gerard Hastings is Professor Emeritus at Stirling University, UK. For the last four decades, he has studied the damaging impacts that commercial marketing has on our health and wellbeing, publishing his findings widely in both academic and non- academic outlets. He is a sought- after keynote speaker, and his work has attracted both the attention of the media and the ire of some multinationals. He continues to act as an expert witness in litigation against the corporate sector in the UK and overseas. Hyperconsumption Corporate Marketing vs. the Planet Gerard Hastings Cover image ‘New York’ by Alain Flesch First published 2022 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Gerard Hastings The right of Gerard Hastings to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Hastings, Gerard (Professor) author. Title: Hyperconsumption : corporate marketing vs. the planet / Gerard Hastings. Description: New York : Routledge, 2022. | Includes index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2021051843 | ISBN 9781032214702 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032214641 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003268567 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Consumption (Economics)–Environmental aspects. | Industrial marketing. | Branding (Marketing) Classification: LCC HC79.C6 H37 2022 | DDC 381/.1–dc23/eng/20211228 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021051843 ISBN: 978-1-03-221470-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-03-221464-1 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-00-326856-7 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/ 9781003268567 Typeset in Sabon by Newgen Publishing UK For Robyn and her generation who will have to clean up the mess made by us newgenprepdf Contents Introduction: Human Beings Not Customers 1 PART I The Corporate Marketing Machine 7 1 Original Sin: The Spawning of Corporate Marketing 9 2 Advertising and the Art of Organised Lying 20 3 The Machinery of Marketing 33 4 Grooming the Next Generation 44 5 Surveillance Capitalism 56 6 Marketing, Power, and the Demise of Democracy 69 PART II We Shall Overcome 81 7 Deep in My Heart 83 8 We’ll Walk Hand in Hand 93 9 The Whole Wide World Around 107 Notes 117 Index 126 Introduction Human Beings Not Customers Look inward, to your origins. For brutish ignorance your mettle was not made; you were made human to follow after wisdom and virtue. (Dante Alighieri)1 Section 1: The Corporate Marketing Machine Marketing in its modern form emerged just over a century ago in response to two forces, which started in the US but swiftly globalised. First, commerce, which had until then been dominated by lots of small businesses, began to coalesce into a much smaller number of bigger com- panies. Capital became concentrated in fewer hands and the modern business corporation came of age. Hand in glove with this, mass produc- tion methods were developed which vastly increased the availability of consumer goods. Cars, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners could be produced in unprecedented numbers at much reduced cost. For us in the rich north of the planet, it was the dawn of an age of plenty. The emerging corporations were, from the outset, acutely aware of the danger of supply exceeding demand and a parallel industry was therefore spawned to turn us into eager customers. It began with advertising, a tool as old as human commerce, but now taken to an industrial scale and informed by the latest social science. Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, was a leading light, and his book, called simply “Propaganda”, published in 1928, provided the road map. The aim was to wage “on behalf of the producers and sellers of consumer goods, a relentless war against saving and in favour of consumption”.2 The importance of this work to keeping the economic show on the road was appreciated way beyond the business community: Bernays became an establishment figure and was toasted on Capitol Hill and in the corridors of academe as well as Wall Street. He had worked out not just how to turn us into customers, but into biddable and needy ones. DOI: 10.4324/9781003268567-1