Review: Capitalism's obsessions lead society awry

Abstract

Review of: Beyond Consumer Capitalism: Media and the Limits to Imagination, by Justin Lewis. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013. 232 pp. ISBN 978-0-7456-5024-1

When critics take aim at a society gone awry through an obsession with consumption, wealth and individualism, their arguments are usually about political interests and structural forces. Justin Lewis’s book is a breath of fresh air, not only because it’s beautifully written and argued, but because he asks us to think about these pressing problems on an imaginative level. Imagine, he asks, if advertisements were banned? Or imagine if advertising creatives were told to produce any story rather than one aimed at selling?