Is the consumer free or manipulated by marketing strategies? Are marketing practices socially ethical? Why are current marketing practices so effective in luring consumers? Have marketing images become the new opiate of the people? If so, what are the social effects of this ubiquitous phenomenon in our culture? Using a multidisciplinary approach, Ann Renee Belair draws from her knowledge of marketing and advertising, Kantian philosophy, popular culture, and sociology to offer new insight to these questions. Belair exposes how marketing ploys go too far by pushing the boundaries of culture and invading the consumers mind. As marketers appropriate and deploy symbols and images of popular culture, they have become overly powerful at seducing consumers. The negative social consequences of todays marketing practices are evidenced by such phenomena as the increasing rate of personal bankruptcies, massive credit card debt, new social ills such as shopping addictions and also social trends encouraging the conspicuous consumption of designer logos and name brands. This book discusses these serious social problems as they pertain to the construction of self-identity.

Ann Renee Belair teaches sociology at Vanier college in Montreal.Her teaching and research are focused on issues of identity,gender, sexuality, family and consumer culture. She is also acouples and family therapist and is working towards herpost-graduate Marital and Family Therapy Certification.