Marketing Madness: A Survival Guide for a Consumer Society

Adding to the growing literature on consumerism and the media is this accessible, generously illustrated tour of America's seemingly limitless marketing outlets. Packing their text with examples, the authors cover the gamut of methods used to push products, including infomercials and advertorials, product placement in movies, targeting of children, telemarketing and outright lies. In part because analyzing commercialism has become a popular way to critique capitalism, this book will be of use to everyone from parents' groups concerned about children's increasing materialism to feminists outraged by the use of women's bodies in advertising. The authors look beyond analysis to offer models for action. Tips for talking back to marketeers conclude each chapter, a ``call to action'' ends the book and, throughout, the authors document examples of grassroots opposition. In North Dakota, for example, 650 students walked out of school to protest being force-fed Channel One. These features make this a true ``survival guide'' and suggest that there may be ways to slow--if not stop--the up to 3000 sales pitches, advertisements and other encroachments that bombard us daily. (Apr.)