Description

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Noted media pundit and author of Playing the Future Douglas Rushkoff gives a devastating critique of the influence techniques behind our culture of rampant consumerism. With a skilled analysis of how experts in the fields of marketing, advertising, retail atmospherics, and hand-selling attempt to take away our ability to make rational decisions, Rushkoff delivers a bracing account of media ecology today, consumerism in America, and why we buy what we buy, helping us recognize when we're being treated like consumers instead of human beings.

About the Author

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Douglas Ruskoff's previous books--including Cyberia and Media Virus--have been translated into thirteen languages. He is the Technology and Culture Consultant to the United Nations Commission on World Culture and a regular consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and he writes a bi-weekly column for the New York Times syndicate. He teaches at the Esalen Institute and Banff Center for the Arts, and will be adjunct professor of Media Sociology at New York University in 1999. He lives in New York City.

Praise For…

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“With immense force and inimitable style, Douglas Rushkoff takes us on an engaging, frightening, and oddly exhilarating journey into the boardrooms where compliance professionals hone their skills. Coercion is destined to be remembered as a watershed in the battle between the marketing industry and the public it means to manipulate.” –Wired 

“An important book… a clear warning to Americans who are unaware of the power of words to intentionally mislead the reader, listener, or viewer. Read this book, and nobody gets hurt.” –Senator Bob Kerrey

“A scathing critique that extends far beyond cyberspace in scope.” –Publishers Weekly

“The most disturbing book of the year… Be careful where you log on.” –The New York Post

“Unmasks a culture of hype and deception.” –Vibe