Cause-marketing inoculates itself from criticism by pairing profit with charity
Evidence
The billboard version of the American Express ad tells us that “This card is designed to eliminate Aids in Africa”. Even when we dismiss this as obvious nonsense — the most credulous consumer cannot but be aware that the card was designed to increase the profits of American Express — the ideological blackmail still holds: how can anything which assists in the struggle against Aids in Africa possibly be wrong? — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1463
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Adorno/Horkheimer on culture industry entertainment engineering resignation, and to ch86’s ‘people remain hooked on capitalism through desire’. — connects to: Liberal philanthropists combine profit-seeking with charity rhetoric — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 59; Consumption-based charity substitutes for and eliminates collective political response — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1465; Marketing works by making consumers feel immune to it while they buy in — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 393 (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Cause-branding collapses the gap between exploitation and atonement into the act of consumption itself
#corroborates(0.92) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1462 - Consumer conformity in culture industry is exploitation dressed as humanitarianism
#corroborates(0.80) - Ethical consumerism replaced political boycott with paid market-based moral gestures
#expands(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 405 - Marketing works by making consumers feel immune to it while they buy in
#expands(0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 393 - Quality-of-life discourse masks the profitability motive underneath.
#corroborates(0.72) — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 427