"Once again, Sut Jhally shows us why it is so urgent that we recognize
and respond to the challenges of our hyper-commercialized culture. In
Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse,
Professor Jhally explains with riveting clarity the social power of
advertising. Jhally's critique of advertising's false promise that
consumption can buy happiness and his analysis of the propaganda of
commodities are a compelling call to rethink any benign assumptions
about consumer culture – and to take action to create a more sustainable
society. This film will, no doubt, be a wonderfully engaging
educational resource, but its message is so timely and powerful that we
will all benefit if this inspiring film is viewed and discussed beyond
the classroom.”
— William Hoynes | Professor of Sociology at Vassar College
"In this important update, Sut Jhally reminds us that the siren call of
advertising has not been mitigated in the digital age. The consequences
for our relationships, our environment, and our society are as potent
and dire as ever.”
— Mara Einstein | Professor of Media Studies at Queens College | Author of
Blacks Ops Advertising: Native Ads, Content Marketing, and the Covert World of the Digital Sell
"
Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse is an extraordinary
documentary, interesting visually and for the spoken text that includes
references to science, social science studies, and political figures. It
first focuses in on the development of sophisticated advertising as a
way to deal with a major problem of economies that are based on, and
motivated by, gaining ever greater profits. Capitalist countries produce
enormous amounts of goods and must somehow convince people to buy them.
Thus, the need in words of the early to mid century economist Joseph
Schumpeter, to deploy “elaborate psychotechnics of advertising.”
Advertising has become so pervasive in the media (including product
placement in movies) and on the internet (Google and Facebook are mainly
in the business of selling adds) that it has transformed our very
culture. The consumerism that it encourages has helped to develop the
ideology that what’s important is the individual and his/her consumption
and not the well being of one’s community or the larger society. The
film also explores the ecological damage being done by the massive
production and consumption of more and more stuff, within a system that
must grow and strive to produce more next year than this year. It gets
to the heart of ecological and political problems facing humanity,
outcomes of the very way the economic system works.
Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse
also explores activism of people who are fighting against the
consumerism and ecological destruction of capitalism. This is a film
that should be seen by everyone concerned with environmental degradation
and the social issues of inequality and poverty that plague the earth.
It would be especially useful to be seen in group settings in which the
critical issues raised can be discussed after viewing."
— Fred Magdoff | Professor Emeritus of Plant and Soil Science at the University of Vermont | Co-author of
What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism"Why
has our society failed to address climate change, which now in the
twenty-first century calls into question the very survival of humanity?
In Advertising on the Edge of the Apocalypse, Sut Jhally provides
a compelling answer, one that few so far have been willing to
contemplate: the nature of our advertising and marketing system, a
“magic kingdom” which today has come to dominate human consciousness
from cradle to grave. If you haven’t seen this film, you will need to
see it, and if you do you will want to recommend it to others.”
— John Bellamy Foster | Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon | Editor of the Monthly Review | Co-author of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism
"Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse
shows in a powerful way how more and more sophisticated advertising
causes unnecessary consumption which results in severe planetary damage
and diverts us from the connections that lead to life-long happiness –
close friends and family, healthy communities – making us believe that
having more new things can replace those crucially important
relationships. This is an important message that we all need to be
reminded of in a world saturated with ads."
— John Byrd, Ph.D | Senior Instructor in Managing for Sustainability MBA Program at the University of Colorado Denver
"Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse is
an unflinching look at the dominant form of storytelling of our time —
the 'fantasy factory' of advertising. The film shows how adverts work on
us, manipulating our desires for profit, often at the expense of the
natural world. It explores the role of advertising in driving
consumerism and environmental breakdown. With lots of facts and real
world examples, it invites viewers to think critically about
advertising, and equips them to navigate our consumer landscape."
— Jeremy Williams | Co-author of The Economics of Arrival
"Anyone who watches Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse
will come away with a clear (and alarming) perspective on how
advertising has succeeded in occupying humans' minds, societies, and
physical environments. Sut Jhally and his team have interwoven powerful
images and empirical facts to show how consumer capitalism is crowding
out healthy human values and killing the planet."
— Tim Kasser | Professor & Chair of Psychology at Knox College | Author of The High Price of Materialism and Hypercapitalism: The Modern Economy, its Values, and How to Change Them
"Recommended."
— Educational Media Reviews Online
