Endless Propaganda: The Advertising of Public Goods

By Paul Rutherford

Book Overview

Is there any public discourse left, or has advertising, with its aggressive sales techniques, usurped the role of democratic, civil debate? Beginning in the 1960s, there was a proliferation of social, political, and corporate advertising in affluent, developed nations that spoke to the "public good" on everything from milk to family values. Surveying over 10,000 advertisements from the past 40 years, "Endless Propaganda" underscores the presence of advertising rhetoric, even in the context of apparently non-partisan collective health issues such as cancer.

The public sphere, argues Paul Rutherford, has been transformed into a huge marketplace of goods and signs. Civil advocacy has become a special art of authority that subjects politics, social behaviour, and public morals to the philosophy and discipline of marketing. Without suggesting that there is one simple way to understand the transformation that democracy has undergone because of this phenomenon, the author introduces and applies the cultural theories of several important philosophers: Habermas, Gramsci, Foucault, Ricoeur, and Baudrillard. The reader is thus given the necessary tools to critically examine the examples at hand and many others that exist beyond the pages of this study.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802083013
• ISBN13: 9780802083012
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 4.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Television warps the mind

In these days of media saturation and convergence, the effects of television on our minds has become a hot topic. Paul Rutherford has taken an interesting angle in the debate over TV. An expert in television commercials, Rutherford has compiled an exhaustive study of how Public Service Announcements play a part in derailing democracy. By dictating morality and creating an atmosphere of shame, PSAs take away our right of free thought.Endless propaganda is one of the most engaging media books released in the recent past. An excellent companion to McLuhan and Gitlin.