Mediacy Articles – Volume 18 No.
Marketing Madness: A Survival Guide for a Consumer Society
By Michael F. Jacobson ∓ Laurie Ann Mazur
Westview Press, 1995, $26.25
ISBN 0-8133-1981-1
Savvy media teachers are increasingly concerned with the attempts by corporations to commercialize every aspect of our culture. The debate over the Youth News Network and similar attempts to commercialize the classroom are only one part of this debate. The issue was extensively referenced in Maude Barlow's keynote address at the Fall, 1995 convention of the Ontario Council of Teachers of English.
Marketing Madness is encyclopaedic in its scope and provides ample documentation of just how far the "marketeers" have gone in turning us all into mindless and uncritical consumers. To quote the forward from Ralph Nader, "In area after area that was generally off limits to commercialism, the mercantile juggernaut has moved in or swarmed over – into our schools and colleges, our public media, our amateur sports, our holidays and rituals, our children, our privacy and private sensibilities, our religious institutions, our environment, our language, our politics. Our historically treasured cultural values are either viewed as marketing impediments – such as democratic tools for civic assertiveness – or are commandeered, coopted, or outright commodified in the service of corporate profits."
In addition to documenting the problem, the authors propose solutions, for individuals, families, neighbourhoods, community groups and those who set social policy.