The Space Merchants

This 1952 novel has new currency in the age of surveillance capitalism. Pohl and Kornbluth conjure a dystopian future where the advertising industry has come to dominate human affairs. Politicians no longer represent districts, they are instead controlled by one of several all-powerful advertising conglomerates. Anyone who speaks against sales and marketing is immediately suspect as some sort of traitor or terrorist. When a new industrial project is developed, it is not owned by the traditional industrial leaders, like the factory maven or the shareholders. Instead, the company which advertises the product has control.

The biggest ad agency takes it to a new level when an international plan is hatched to modernise and industrialise India. The ad company ends up effectively running the country, which is now referred to as "Indiastries". Then they move on to the ultimate prize - the colonisation of Venus. The dream/nightmare is of a whole planet where all affairs are completely dominated by advertising from the very first day the colony is established.

In 1952 the authors couldn't conceive of the internet, but the coercive control advertising now has over populations hypnotised by their personalised social media feeds, is redolent of the world Pohl and Kornbluth describe. The Martian fantasies of certain ego-maniacal billionaires in the real world of 2023 also make the scenario in this novel seem prophetic.

I knock off a star because the second half of the book loses some of the compelling storytelling rhythm established in the opening. But for its prescience this is well worth a read.

Everyone said it before and I am saying it too... This is Mad men thrown into a pulp SF blender with glorious results. Frankly for it's writing I would give this book only 3 stars, but I was in the mood for some light SF cheese and anti corporate messaging and this book delivered.

I was greatly surprised to find the anti corporate and nature preservationist sentiments in a book from the 50s. "When we look back we also look down" (I can't remember whose quote this is so please tell me in the comments so I can add it). I always have to remind myself of this quote to remember that we are not dealing with all of this just now, it is a long fight, and not all of the people in the 50s were just repeating propaganda and ads instead of speaking. I mean People had to be aware of these issues back in the 50s in other to fight for them in the 60s. We have to commend Frederik Pohl for being in the forefront of these issues and viciously mocking both the "executives" and "consumers" all the while creating this particular type of dystopia in the 50s long before anyone could dream of Cyberpunk Hellscapes.

And to think he first started work on his novel during WWII set in New York featuring men working in advertising. Coming home he realized what he had written was quite bad and that he knew nothing about advertising, so he made sure to get a job in an advertising agency and he worked for 3 years for research purposes while writing SF on the side... What a Man!