Marketing works by making consumers feel immune to it while they buy in

Evidence

The primary technique of murketing is to blur the boundaries between branded entities and the rest of everyday life, and then proceed to engage the frank complicity of the consumer in embracing branded pecuniary culture while believing they are immune to it. It is symptomatic of the dramatic shift in conceptualization of the market away from mere conveyance of commodities and toward the neoliberal framing of the market as uniquely omnipotent information processor. It is intimately conjoined to the neoliberal project of the permanent revolution of the self: by constantly conjuring the magic of self-transformation through purchases, one must understand one’s projects as subverting all external attempts by the powers that be to impose conformity to external manufactured identities. It incites the targets to believe that they can “see through” and comprehend all the brands, the con artistry, the flimflam, the propaganda, the logos, and marketing culture, all the while easing their acquiescence into that very same culture. It is another manifestation of the neoliberal promotion of ignorance, covered in the last chapter. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 393

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘murketing’ precisely as a technique that blurs branded and everyday life while cultivating the consumer’s sense of critical immunity.
• XREF: Chapters 1-5 (not shown in full but referenced) built the ‘neoliberal promotion of ignorance’ theme this paragraph explicitly pays off. — connects to: Advertising budgets, not product merit, determine what consumers buy — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 175; Advertising manipulates consumers into wanting what they are made to want. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 258; Advertising compels consumers to identify with and demand the products imposed on them — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 98 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Consumers buy culture-industry products knowing they are being manipulated #exemplifies (0.88) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 31
• Advertising manipulates consumers into wanting what they are made to want. #corroborates (0.82) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 258
• Advertising compels consumers to identify with and demand the products imposed on them #corroborates (0.78) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 98
• Brand advertising aims to convert consumers rather than persuade them #qualifies (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 273