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'Funny and readable, [it] will make us all see the world in a very different way' - Dr Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People
'Brilliant ... if you thought your brain was being gently warmed by the advertising industry, read this book and you'll realise it's being fried' - Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio 2
Advertising is selling us a dream, a lifestyle. It promises us fulfilment and tells us where to buy it - from international flights to a vast array of goods we consume like there is no tomorrow. The truth is, if advertising succeeds in keeping us on our current trajectory, there may not be a tomorrow.
In Badvertising, Andrew Simms and Leo Murray raise the alarm about an industry that is making us both unhealthy and unhappy, and that is driving the planet to the precipice of environmental collapse in the process.
What is the psychological impact of being barraged by thousands of prompts to buy things every day? How does the commercialisation of our public spaces weaken our sense of belonging? How are car manufacturers, airlines and oil companies lobbying to weaken climate action? Examining the devastating impact of advertising on our minds and the planet, Badvertising also crucially explores what we can do to change things for the better.
By:
Andrew Simms,
Leo Murray
Imprint: Pluto Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 153mm,
ISBN: 9780745349145
ISBN 10: 0745349145
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 20 November 2023
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Figures Preface Introduction: Advertising and the Insidious Rise of Brain Pollution 1. Badvertising, Priming, Propaganda and Surveillance Advertising 2. How Advertising Increases Consumption 3. How We Banned Tobacco Advertising 4. Sports Advertising and Sponsorship: The Great Pollution Own Goal 5. How Big Car Persuaded Us to Buy Big Cars 6. How Airlines Took Us For a Ride 7. Why Self-Regulation Isn’t Working 8. A World Without Advertising Acknowledgements Notes Index
Andrew Simms is the author of many books including The New Economics, Ecological Debt, Tescopoly and Cancel the Apocalypse. Most recently he co-authored Economics: A Crash Course, a beginner's guide to the subject from a heterodox perspective, with David Boyle. He co-founded the New Weather Institute and coordinates the Rapid Transition Alliance. He is a research associate at the Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex, a fellow of the New Economics Foundation (NEF) where he was also policy director for many years and established its Climate Change, Energy and Interdependence Programme, and has been a frequent contributor to the Guardian and BBC. He is also the assistant director of Scientists for Global Responsibility. He co-founded the Green New Deal group in 2007, the climate campaign onehundredmonths.org that ran until 2017, and devised Earth Overshoot Day. Leo Murray co-founded Plane Stupid, where he played a central role in strategic planning and communication for three years from 2006. He also designed and co-founded the climate change campaigning organisation Possible in 2009, where he is currently director of innovation. Murray is the brains behind the Frequent Flyer Levy, and strategy lead for the Rapid Transition Taskforce. He was previously a part-time political advisor on the transition to a sustainable economy to Labour's Shadow Minister for Sustainable Economics, Clive Lewis MP.
Reviews for Badvertising: Polluting Our Minds and Fuelling Climate Chaos
'A hugely timely and important book that grapples with advertising's role in enabling climate crimes - and sets out why and how we need to stop the industry's complicity in its tracks, for the sake of a liveable future.' -- Caroline Lucas MP 'A much-needed book whose time has come. The continued advertising of high-carbon products at a time of climate crisis is a form of insanity. The authors are absolutely right to call for a ban, and it can't happen too soon.' -- Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards, UCL