The Institute courted corporate funding by selling social research as advertising and labor-management tooling.

Evidence

Not only government administration, and all the opinion-forming media such as the press, film and radio, but also businesses maintain numerous sociological research bodies. Social research can create the optimal social conditions in their factories, ascertain and calculate in advance what the public needs in their branch of business, and monitor and improve the effectiveness of their advertising. A similar course of development can be expected in Germany as well. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 456

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A paradigm-shifting irony: the theorists of instrumental reason rendering social research itself instrumental for capital.