Book Review: Coercion, why we listen to what “they” say, by Douglas Rushkoff

Anyone living in a consumer society is likely to benefit from reading this book, finding it an insightful if disturbing expose of manipulation techniques employed by marketers, media and politicians. You will never trust a salesman again.

The author’s message is simple, salesmen and marketers do not intend their targets to behave rationally, they design their communications to influence their targets; consumers and citizens to behave irrationally. The books exploration of this is easy to follow, if somewhat limited. Rushkoff draws attention to his own use of the techniques, which he explains is a further technique to disarm the reader, by treating the readers as one of those in the know. This undercutting is intended to serve a further message, the conclusion at the end of the book, which is that there is no ‘they’, instead that ‘we’ are all somehow implicated in the coercion through manipulative techniques. The conclusion is positioned as empowering, by suggesting that we are all part of the problem, we are intended to conclude

To reach that conclusion the book fudges the difference between persuasion and coercion, fails to analyse the role of market structures, media culture and the history of diminution of moral capital. As a result the book fails to attain the status of critical cultural commentary.

It is however a useful primer on the range of manipulative marketing techniques employed in contemporary consumer societies. Read (or reread) the second chapter before setting out to buy a car.

This book was reviewed for the Shuttleworth Foundation bookclub.