INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT: Each week we will discuss several contemporary marketing
topics. You will be given a question to answer on each of these topics. You must answer
three questions. Your answers should reflect wider reading. Your answers should be
articulate, insightful and academic. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers, just
well researched, cogently argued answers. All of the topics complete with questions are
included on the pages that follow.
Use approximately 1000 words for each question. Your entire assignment should be up to
3000 words.

FAQs
1. In addition to answering the three questions, does the assignment also require an
overarching introduction and conclusion?
Answer: No.
2. Can I submit/upload my answers as separate files?
Answer: No. The essays should be submitted together in one document.
3. Can I go over the word limit?
Answer: You should adhere to the word limit.
4. Can I get feedback on my work prior to submission?
Answer: Feedback on draft assignments will be given. Please book a slot for feedback:
https://doodle.com/poll/vzn9vrn67vkykcx3.
5. What should I include or not include?
Answer: That judgement call is down to you, but the content of the lectures is a good
guide as to what is important.
6. How many references do I need?
Answer: As many or as few as it takes, but at a minimum you should cite the core texts.
References are not included in the word count.
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Topics:
Topic 1: ‘Neoliberalism’ refers to the attempt to reorganise society and the state on the basis
of an ideal of ‘the market’. Neoliberalism proclaims that the logic of business and money is
the best determinant of human happiness. Neoliberalism also says that human beings can’t
be trusted, so the market must necessarily dictate what the people want. Every category of
human interaction, therefore – from the public sector to the intimate adventures of love –
must be made to work more like a market, with in-built competitive mechanisms and cost
controls. Every personal choice, including democratic choice, must be subsumed into the
logic of the market.
We are told that this is what liberty looks like. Neoliberalism is an attempt to build a
‘Machinery of Freedom’, in the words of David Friedman, in which human beings are
economic creatures first and foremost. Everything we do should be about ‘maximising
utility’, whether it’s in a relationship, in a job, or in social situations. The self is just an
entrepreneurial project. The body is just human capital, a set of resources which can be put
to work generating an income stream.
Assignment question 1: Neoliberalism has become so encompassing and
powerful that it is now the most significant factor in shaping how, why, and to
what degree human beings suffer. Discuss this statement.
Key readings:
Ashman et al. (2018) ‘Don’t forget to like, share and subscribe’: Digital autopreneurs in a
neoliberal world.
McGuigan (2015) Neoliberal Culture
Topic 2: Despite all the media chatter in recent months about their decline in 2014 the top
four British supermarkets retained almost 75% of the UK grocery market. They are not going
anywhere anytime soon. But is there a price to pay for our enduring love affair with the
cheapness, choice and convenience they offer? In this workshop we will go behind the
scenes of the supermarket world.
Assignment question 2: Life would be better without supermarkets. Discuss
this statement.
Key readings:
Blythman J (2008) Shopped: The Shocking Power of the British Supermarkets. London:
Harper Perennial.
Topic 3: Getting on and being successful in the marketing career that awaits you upon
graduation will not be easy. It is unlikely, for instance, that you will be promoted simply
because you are good at your job. Other factors often come into play. Much of how you are
judged will come down to your personal swagger, your brazen self-belief, your willingness to
take credit for things you have done, and perhaps things you haven’t. Substance is
important, but so is your style of self-presentation. In your career you may suffer grave
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injustices. People much less capable than you may seem to get all the breaks. This lecture
considers how you can maximise your chances of being a successful marketer.
Assignment question 3: Upon graduation what strategies will you adopt to
ensure that you have a successful career in marketing? Discuss this
statement.
Key readings:
McKevitt S (2006) City Slackers: Workers of the World You are Wasting Your Time. London:
Cyan.
Topic 4: Celebrity; Topic 5: Children and advertising; Topic 6: Self-help (A Daskalopoulou)
Topic 4: Why are we so fascinated by people who make no material impact on our lives and
are, in many respects, just like ourselves – ordinary? Why do we care about people who
have no conspicuous talent? Has there ever been a time in history when so much time,
energy, and money has been devoted to following the exploits of people we have never met,
are never likely to, and who don’t know we exist?
Assignment question 4: Celebrity culture is harmful to society. Discuss this
statement.
Key readings:
Cashmore E (2006) Celebrity Culture. London: Routledge.
Ferris K (2007) The Sociology of Celebrity, Sociology Compass, 1(1): 371-384.
Mills et al. (2015) Fabricating celebrity brands via scandalous narrative: crafting, capering
and commodifying the comedian, Russell Brand, Journal of Marketing Management, 31(5-6):
599-615.
Topic 5: In this workshop we will throw desperately needed light onto the practices of a
relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents
everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the
family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children’s advocates, and
industry insiders, we will focus on the explosive growth of child marketing, showing how
youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and
neuroscience to transform children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer
demographics in the world. We will ponder whether we should push back against the
wholesale commercialization of childhood, raise urgent questions about the ethics of
children’s marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids.
Assignment question 5: Marketing to children should be banned. Discuss this
statement.
Key readings:
Baker et al. (2005) Building Understanding of the Domain of Consumer Vulnerability.
Chapter 7, from Eagle and Dahl (2015) Marketing Ethics and Society. Sage: London.
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Topic 6: Many of us are hopelessly hooked on the products of the self-help industry. Never
have so many consumers spend so much with so little proof of efficacy. In this workshop we
will examine whether it actually helps to do anything other than fill the bank accounts of
high-profile authors, motivational speakers and life coaches.
Assignment question 6: Self-help books are mostly designed only to make
their authors rich. Discuss this statement.
Key readings:
Salerno S (2005) SHAM: How the Gurus of the Self-Help Movement Make Us Helpless.
London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing Ltd.
Topic 7: In this workshop we set out to uncover the true nature of the global fashion
juggernaut, tracing the rise of fast fashion retailers and discounters, and the roots of our
obsession with deals and steals. We will consider how cheap fashion harms the charity thrift
shops and textile recyclers where our masses of clothing castoffs end up. All in an attempt to
answer: What are we doing with all these clothes we’re buying? And more important, what
are they doing to us, our society, our environment, and our economic well-being?
Assignment question 7: Students are among fast fashion’s biggest advocates.
Should they change their shopping behaviour? Discuss this statement.
Key readings:
Cline (2012) Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion.
Anguelov (2015) The Dirty Side of the Garment Industry: Fast Fashion and Its Negative
Impact on Environment and Society.
Topic 8: This workshop offers an analysis of the highly controversial and taboo area of fake
brands and what motivates people to buy them. Everyone has their favourite brands, and
everyone has bought fakes of them – this workshop asks why? As consumers, we are literally
in love with our favourite brands. In fact, this desire to own brands is so strong now that we
will even buy fakes to make it happen. We will explore how the consumer behaves and
thinks, and how companies (legal or illegal ones) are responding. The brand has become a
symbol for quality. When fakes appear on the scene, the quality of goods is inevitably
compromised. As a consumer, we know this. But it doesn’t deter us from buying fakes.
Assignment question 8: Buying counterfeit brands is morally wrong. Discuss
this statement.
Key readings:
McCartney S (2005) The Fake Factor: Why We Love Brands But Buy Fakes. London: Cyan
Books.
Topic 9: This workshop explores the idea of a counterculture – a world outside of the
consumer-dominated world that encompasses us – pervades everything. It also considers the
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idea that mocking or simply hoping the “system” will collapse, is not only counterproductive
but has helped to create the very consumer society radicals oppose.
Assignment question 9: The counterculture has nothing to do with rebellion
and everything to do with making money. Discuss this statement.
Key readings:
Arsel and Thompson (2011) Demytholozing consumption practices: How Consumers Protect
Their Field- Dependent Identity Investments from Devaluing Marketplace Myths.
Heath J and Potter A (2004) Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer
Culture. London: Harper Business.