Space Merchants - BookWyrm.World

Hardcover, 158 pages

Published June 30, 1953 by Ballantine Books.

One of the most savage and devastating attacks on modern consumer society and the advertising agents who are its high priests, THE SPACE MERCHANTS is uncomfortably prophetic. Two major advertising agencies are fighting for the Venus account--nothing less than total control of the Venus economy and markets. It is a mere bagatelle that Venus is a harsh, unspeakably hostile planet, so far uninhabited. Fowler Schocken Associates, in the person of the Venus project's Vice President, Mitchell Courtenay, have no doubt that they can "persuade" colonists to go there, and once there, they will just have to survive as best they can. The Schocken firm has one major rival, Taunton Associates, Taunton may have lost the final round, but the war is not yet over. The client Congress and the puppet President are in no position to interfere as commercial warfare becomes even more bitter. There is no one force, however, …

One of the most savage and devastating attacks on modern consumer society and the advertising agents who are its high priests, THE SPACE MERCHANTS is uncomfortably prophetic. Two major advertising agencies are fighting for the Venus account--nothing less than total control of the Venus economy and markets. It is a mere bagatelle that Venus is a harsh, unspeakably hostile planet, so far uninhabited. Fowler Schocken Associates, in the person of the Venus project's Vice President, Mitchell Courtenay, have no doubt that they can "persuade" colonists to go there, and once there, they will just have to survive as best they can. The Schocken firm has one major rival, Taunton Associates, Taunton may have lost the final round, but the war is not yet over. The client Congress and the puppet President are in no position to interfere as commercial warfare becomes even more bitter. There is no one force, however, that is still to be reckoned with--the hated and despised Consies (Conservationists). This group of fantastics spend their time in pinprick sabotage and futile propaganda. Futile, that is, until they are able to recruit Courtenay himself. Naturally he does not believe in their message, but helping them is better than life as a Consumer, helplessly hooked on Schocken products, a life to which he was betrayed by--could it be Taunton? He has every intention of betraying the Consies when he can, but in the meantime, he has no choice but to use his star-class advertising mind to further their cause. But even the best-conditioned worm will turn in time. --front flap

4 editions

AvonVilla@ramblingreaders.org reviewed The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl

Big Brother is selling advertising

4 stars

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 …

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.

David Scrimshaw

rated it

Sept. 20, 2012

Subjects

Science Fiction
Twentieth century -- Fiction.
Advertising agencies -- Fiction.
Dystopias -- Fiction.
Advertising -- Fiction.