A discussion of how modern advertising attempts to control our thoughts and desires in order to make us buy the products it produces. Exploring the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including subliminal tactics, this book shows how advertisers secretly manipulate mass desire for consumer goods and products. In addition, Packard also discusses advertising in politics, predicting the way image and personality rapidly came to overshadow real issues in the televised age.
'A work of engaging pop philosophy and accessible social science [and] a boisterous dissection of the forces jellifying our minds' Sunday Times Includes brand new material covering the US election and Brexit Every day, many people will try to change your mind, but they won't reason with you. Instead, you'll be nudged, anchored, incentivised and manipulated in barely noticeable ways. It's a profound shift in the way we interact with one another. Philosopher James Garvey explores the hidden story of persuasion and the men and women in the business of changing our minds. From the covert PR used to start the first Gulf War to the neuromarketing of products to appeal to our unconscious minds, he reveals the dark arts practised by professional persuaders. How did we end up with a world where beliefs are mass-produced by lobbyists and PR firms? Could Google or Facebook swing elections? Are new kinds of persuasion making us less likely to live happy, decent lives in an open, peaceful world? Is it too late, or can we learn to listen to reason again? The Persuaders is a call to think again about how we think now.
Hidden Persuaders of Cocoa and Chocolate: A Flavor Lexicon for Cocoa and Chocolate Sensory Professionals provides an overview of the tastes, aromas and notes describing cocoa and chocolate. In addition to exploring tastes, aromas and notes, the book broadens the language for describing chocolate by relating tasting experiences to the process of pairing flavors. This resource, designed for both academics and those working in research and development, equips the reader to describe these attributes in a sensory language for the purposes of new product development or quality improvement. - Provides an overview of the tastes, aromas and notes describing cocoa and chocolate - Features scientific explanations of the volatile and non-volatile aspects of each flavor - Contains science-based categorization of taste, various aromas, trigeminal sensations and atypical flavors
Traces the influence of Packard's early life on his works on social criticism and notes his viewpoints in the context of a writer lacking academic affiliation
A pioneering work from the 1960s about how the rapid growth of disposable consumer goods degraded the environmental, financial and spiritual character of western society. It exposed the increasing commercialisation of American life, when people bought things they didn't need or want. It also highlighted the concept of planned obsolescence, the 'death date' built into products. This prescient study predicted the rise of consumer culture and features an introduction by bestselling author Bill McKibben.
Advertising is everywhere. By some estimates, the average American is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements each day. Whether we realize it or not, "adcreep"—modern marketing's march to create a world where advertising can be expected anywhere and anytime—has come, transforming not just our purchasing decisions, but our relationships, our sense of self, and the way we navigate all spaces, public and private. Adcreep journeys through the curious and sometimes troubling world of modern advertising. Mark Bartholomew exposes an array of marketing techniques that might seem like the stuff of science fiction: neuromarketing, biometric scans, automated online spies, and facial recognition technology, all enlisted to study and stimulate consumer desire. This marriage of advertising and technology has consequences. Businesses wield rich and portable records of consumer preference, delivering advertising tailored to your own idiosyncratic thought processes. They mask their role by using social media to mobilize others, from celebrities to your own relatives, to convey their messages. Guerrilla marketers turn every space into a potential site for a commercial come-on or clandestine market research. Advertisers now know you on a deeper, more intimate level, dramatically tilting the historical balance of power between advertiser and audience. In this world of ubiquitous commercial appeals, consumers and policymakers are numbed to advertising's growing presence. Drawing on a variety of sources, including psychological experiments, marketing texts, communications theory, and historical examples, Bartholomew reveals the consequences of life in a world of non-stop selling. Adcreep mounts a damning critique of the modern American legal system's failure to stem the flow of invasive advertising into our homes, parks, schools, and digital lives.
Spanning a century, Pushing Cool reveals how the twin deceptions of health and Black affinity for menthol were crafted—and how the industry’s disturbingly powerful narrative has endured to this day. Police put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold for selling cigarettes on a New York City street corner. George Floyd was killed by police outside a store in Minneapolis known as “the best place to buy menthols.” Black smokers overwhelmingly prefer menthol brands such as Kool, Salem, and Newport. All of this is no coincidence. The disproportionate Black deaths and cries of “I can’t breathe” that ring out in our era—because of police violence, COVID-19, or menthol smoking—are intimately connected to a post-1960s history of race and exploitation. In Pushing Cool, Keith Wailoo tells the intricate and poignant story of menthol cigarettes for the first time. He pulls back the curtain to reveal the hidden persuaders who shaped menthol buying habits and racial markets across America: the world of tobacco marketers, consultants, psychologists, and social scientists, as well as Black lawmakers and civic groups including the NAACP. Today most Black smokers buy menthols, and calls to prohibit their circulation hinge on a history of the industry’s targeted racial marketing. In 2009, when Congress banned flavored cigarettes as criminal enticements to encourage youth smoking, menthol cigarettes were also slated to be banned. Through a detailed study of internal tobacco industry documents, Wailoo exposes why they weren’t and how they remain so popular with Black smokers.
Examines the invasion of privacy in the United States by government, business, and education. Describes surveillance techniques and tools of investigative experts.
In the rampant consumer society of the 90s, THE MANIPULATORS is a timely reminder of the sneaky campaigns, the psychological insights and the scientific research that lie behind our buying decisions. From the heady days of the 50s, when subliminal messages were invented, to the databases of the 90s, Jeffrey Robinson shows how the multi-billion dollar advertising and marketing industry preys on our insecurities, targets the most susceptible members of society - our children - and bombards us with hundreds of ads a day. Witty, incisive and ultimately disturbing, THE MANIPULATORS is a salutary look at the way advertising has shaped our present and how, with the vast opportunities offered by the internet, it will control our future.
