Coercion by Douglas Rushkoff

Summary by Andras Konya

Table of Contents

 Skip to feature:

Go to Introduction: 	They Say 

Go to Chapter 1: 		Hand-to-Hand 

Go to Chapter 2: 		Atmospherics 

Go to Chapter 3: 		Spectacle 

Go to Chapter 4: 		Public Relations 

Go to Chapter 5: 		Advertising 

Go to Chapter 6: 		Pyramids 

Go to Chart:		Cult Behavior 
  
Go to Chapter 7: 		Virtual Marketing 
  
Go to Postscript: 		Buyer's Remorse 

            The first part of the book introduces the idea of “they,” the people who seek to influence our lives in some form or fashion, and it poses questions about our collective cultural behaviors that have become an everyday event. The author introduces himself to us the readers. He also expresses his reason for writing the book by pointing to the backfire effect his previous books. Because he was a media/advertisement consultant, he acts as a “double agent” writing down and reporting the coercive practices from everyday people to large corporations. And that is exactly what he does in the book. He does not reach to conclusions and point at the responsible parties, but instead he strictly reports the facts, although no conclusions are necessary since the facts simply and clearly speak for themselves. Rushkoff writes down most of the coercive tactics used by “them” and says that everything is coercive. Attempting to change someone’s view point is okay, but its when our influence becomes too overbearing and mainly destructive that influence turns into coercion. Although no technique of coercion is ever outdated, it is the style of the technique that changes. For example, the technique of offering a free gift, which either has a catch, or is included in the purchase price, or is fairly inexpensive, rarely works nowadays. There are three main and distinct responses to advertisement or coercion: the “Traditionalists,” the ironically named sophisticated “Cool Kids,” and the “New Simpletons.” The Traditionalists are the type who is “die-hard” for their political party, believe they are not tricked into buying unnecessary things, and thus, have the most trust in people. The “Cool Kids” are the type who is weary of advertisers’ usual tactics rewarded by “noticing” the coercion, although just superficially. The New Simpletons are the type who wants a straightforward explanation. As the reader begins to feel that this whole coercion deal is a big conspiracy against us, Rushkoff assures us that “they” are us.

            This section opens by introducing us Mort Spivas, a mechanical bed distributor. Rushkoff had just received a phone call from Mort informing him that he was in the hospital. After going to Mort’s apartment in Queens, Mort tells the author that his own “heart attack” was do to his guilt in coercing a couple into buying a mattress from him. The author cleverly describes this classic example of the “hand-to-hand” technique and how easily some people are coerced into buying things they would never have guessed that they wanted.  Coercion actually has a horrible effect not just on the people coerced, but also the coercer.

            The first step Mort used in hand-to-hand coercion was placing himself into the couples’ shoes. Mort knew that the couple lived in a lower-middle income neighborhood in the Bronx. So he took his beat up car and a modest suit to wear for the sales pitch and told the couple that his grandmother used to live there. To insure a sell, Mort “inspected” the old bed and instructed the couple to buy a whole new bed set, even though the bed only need a new mattress. Mort also said some outrages things to get a desired effect, like fires had have been reported with the old bed set. After the sell, Mort wasn’t through with the couple yet. He coerced the couple into buying extra things for the bed set and sold them unnecessary financing. He made it sound almost too good to be true. Mort sold the couple $5000 worth of merchandise for something worth only $2500. To seal the deal completely, Mort gave the couple a free gift. This way they would feel badly about returning the bed set, after they had received a free gift.

            Rushkoff argues that the people from whom Mort Spivas learned his coercive business engagement, like Dale Carnegie among others, legitimize “people-handling” by raising it from a crafty dealing to a “philosophy of life”. The CIA engages in similar practices and engages many of what is in Dale Carnegie’s book. The first stage is screening or otherwise called “winning a friend”. Seemingly uninteresting bits of personal information can give the coercer information he will use down the line, such as when Mort told the couple that his own grandmother lived in the same neighborhood. In the second stage of “reconnaissance” the coercer forces out of the coerced a “confession.” For Mort, this happened when he “inspected” the poor quality bed. The CIA uses several different techniques to squeeze out a confession from the coerced. The last stage, “conclusion”, achieves “ongoing cooperation” or aims at not letting the coerced know that he has been tricked into a confession. This stage in the Mort example happened when the couple was offered a free gift.

            The author states that the one industry that has best adapted to this hand-to-hand coercion is none other than the automotive industry. Unlike small-time bed distributors, like Mort, car dealers have huge corporations funding already prepared, no-fail scripts. Rushkoff brings up another example, this time of a retired car salesman named Jim Miller. Jim has a whole collection of all of the coercive literature, cassettes, and tapes he has gotten over years as a car dealer. The first instructions of the manuals tell Jim to be friendly and to find common ground. The salesmen are never instructed to talk about cars, but instead are instructed to listen. “Buying is 90% emotional,” says one manual meaning the need for humans to be understood. Also, the manuals instruct to use presumptive language, instead of questions with yes or no answers. According to Jim, the question, Is this the type of vehicle you would like to own?, paralyzes people. Why? It creates a sort of scenario that puts the customer into a “fantasy.” The customer is forced to obey when he is asked presumptive questions. To make people quickly sign the contract for the car, Jim tried to seem like an ally to people. He would tell customers that the “big, bad” manager made a mistake and that they needed to sign quickly before the manager realized he made the “error.”

            Since many of us have caught on to this extremely traumatizing experience, we all live to loathe it. So GM launched a new brand, Saturn, to make the car buying experience less regrettable. Rushkoff says that although this might not seem like coercion, but actually we are coerced into buying a car at fixed price just so that we appear not to get ripped off. The way coercion is really effective is by making it hide so well that the people who sell us things, like the happy, cheerful youths at GAP, do not themselves know that they are coercing. This can be achieved by having ambiguous goals in acrostic poems spelling out the company’s name. Another way is mind-washing the employees by “training courses.” These techniques to hide coercion are so well hidden that people actually blame themselves if a store earns less than expected profits or if it goes out of business. 

            A company called AMRAP exploited our social-survivor skills so well that it had to be shut down by the Federal Trade Commission. They used social get-togethers to get people slightly drunk and disoriented, so that they would sign up for a real-estate deal.

            The chapter begins by describing the effects on the psyche of huge theme stores such as Niketown. The goal of the mega-store is to confuse or overwhelm us, and then it can attack our sensory stimulus to make us less rational in our buying spree. One way these grand and spectacle buildings coerce is that they make us weak and, thus, give us a reason to give up and submit. Frank Baum, the author The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, believed that the retail environment could help us realize our deepest desires and wishes. Glass was a major improvement in marketing of the early 1900’s. It not only made a showy display stand, but it signaled that the “merchant could refuse to sell.” Although they certainly used the techniques of atmospherics, they did not purposely deploy them until the early 70’s. With the full advent and perfection of theme environment in the 70’s, buying became more about buying excitement than a real, useful product. The transition from focusing on a product to focusing on the customer had been established.

            Victor Gruen who envisioned that malls would not be strictly commercial, built the first mall in America in 1956; they would have post offices, libraries, and meeting rooms. However as we know it today, malls are nothing but vast coercive buildings with something that appeals to every member of the family. “Disorientation keeps customers inside the mall.” This is why it is often very hard to find your way out to the garage. That and a mall’s tricky hexagonal design make malls very frustrating to go to. This frustration added to a mall’s “artificiality” “reduced the entertainment value” and caused designers to resort to yet even more coercive tactics. Abandoned historical monuments soon were incorporated into malls making them feel more human. The person thinks he is visiting a museum, whereas he is in a sugarcoated mall. “Theme restaurants work on a similar principle.” Like these artificial museums, theme restaurants, such as the Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood, pretend to replicate the feeling of stardom by the ubiquitous memorabilia and props. Yet, there is another type of “flagship” mega-theme store called the “un-theme” store. That’s right. Big, warehouse type stores, such as Ikea, Sam’s Club, and Bed Bath and Beyond, capitalize on our weariness of huge, glitzy “flagship” stores by appearing as a value store. The membership required for entry seemingly gives us an access to an elite group.

            Coercive atmospherics works in a way that does not acknowledge us as humans, but rather as brains with five senses. They can manipulate us in anyway and most surprisingly without our knowledge. Our most “exploited” sense is obviously our sight. It was noticed early on that our eyes tend to pick out other human forms in the background. As a result, mannequins were put on displays to show off clothing. Our natural traffic patterns were exploited by ways of revolving doors, widths of aisles, escalators, just to name a few. The most apparent place where atmospherics is used is in a casino. Everything from the carpet, walls and drapes are red to “stir up our emotions.” Slot machines with loud noises, waitresses with quite revealing dresses, offers of free drinks, and many others provide a distraction from a game all ready unbeatable. From the ground we stand on to lighting and AC systems we are constantly being bombarded with quite coercive practices: “we succumb to the mall’s own rules of guided behavior.”

            Another sense always bombarded in malls is hearing. The Muzak Company, founded in 1928, has developed much background music and has research affirming that more Muzak means more business. But since everybody uses background Muzak, it has lost its competitive edge. New foreground music is being developed, but that too will probably lose its edge. So it is then hard to understand why “The sound of silence is a missed selling opportunity.”

            Like our eyes and ears, even our noses are coerced. Several supermarkets have pumped the cooking and oven exhaust into the vent and AC system. Although this is not as coercive as it might seem, we already associate cooking with the cookie smell. True coercion with our “olfactory sense” is achieved when scents are used to change human behavior. For example, a Japanese Company uses citrus sense at different times of the day to boost worker productivity.

            Cameras in stores are not only safeguards for security, but they videotape our every movement and response to the coercion. This way if we are not coerced into buying a product, technicians and consultants might decide to try a different type of technique.

            The newly renovated Times Square provides a glimpse into the coerce nature of the “real world.” Although the renovation of Times Square turned the once porn center into a safe, pleasant place to be, it has many drawbacks. It has been transformed from a public space to private one.

            Spectacle works when an audience or a large crowd, such as at a football game, is made to react in unison. The football game where Joe and his grandson Peter attended was filled with spectacle all of which was aimed at making the audience buy some product or service. From the QB sack to the touchdown, everything was sponsored, although not as explicitly as we might think. Advertisers feel the need to capitalize on the most candid and innocent spectacles: the wave. Once it caught on in the mainstream, advertisers sought to use the wave’s effect of making the audience one giant organism. The same principle applied to the game of Simon Says that McDonald’s used during the game. After a dispute with the rules, the crowd booed McDonald’s off of the field. “As the McDonald’s marketers painfully realized, a crowd’s energy is easier to stimulate that it is to control.” In a larger group we are relieved of our responsibility and can freely discuss politically incorrect topics, such as cheerleaders or why whites make better QB’s. This lack of responsibility makes us very vulnerable to advertisers because we have heightened emotions during these times. The NBA made the transition to a “commercial interests” a whole lot better than the NFL. David Stern, the NBA commissioner, “systematically” reduced local and team influences and instead created an individually based system where each player is “pitted” against another, “as in a boxing match.” The sport’s uniform plays an important rule in the promotion of the NBA. With its baggier look, the uniforms appealed to newer audiences, while the uniform alteration every few years forces the average fan to buy more and more jerseys.

“The modern sports spectacle” is by far not as coercive, or at least not as destructive, as when a spectacle is used to promote ideology. The most obvious example of an exploited spectacle used in connection with ideology is that of Adolf Hitler. The most recent examples of this are evident in the racially motivated “marches,” although nothing more than “stationary speeches,” of the Million Youth March.

To create a planned spectacle you first need to create a suitable environment. In Hitler’s case this was a Nuremberg rally in the Zeppelin Field. The main organizer of these rallies was Albert Speer who came up with the idea of the unforgettable searchlights seen at Nazi rallies. The giant searchlights created an effect that modified the crowd’s emotions. You need to unify the crowd so that it will be one. In Nuremberg, Hitler brought many different local leaders who all spoke before he did.

A symbolic attack proves to be very potent in making everyone fell infuriated. When everybody has the trust of the leader, he makes an attempt to sound godly. An oath follows in which audience fully participates.

Another one of these planned ideological spectacles is Promise Keepers. The author’s acquaintance, Hank, is a formal member of Promise Keepers. With a camcorder, he recorded one of their meetings in Philadelphia. This male-only organization aims at giving the participant an entry back to God, although feminists insist it is “the greatest danger to women’s rights.” The results that these very powerful techniques used by Promise Keepers are quite frightening. After the two-day sessions Hank returned to his home and scared his wife so much that she had to take the children to a neighbor’s house for a night.

Although in the 60’s spectacles started to prove like a force to usher in positive change, their “current incarnations,” like Woodstock II, are too commercialized and even destructive. Thomas Hoegh, best known for orchestrating the 1994 Winter Olympics, came up with the idea of using spectacle in a good, purposeful kind of way. Hoegh wanted “to design a massive youth movement” which incorporated some of the old positive energy of spectacles.  Hoegh very well knew that to succeed he needed to create a movement that was free from the music industry’s commercialized vision and also free from the progressives who added too much “political causes.” Hoegh proposed to create a system that was loosely organized and depended on people’s own input. This communistic approach was met with lot skepticism and it was dismissed as impractical. Furthermore, it sounded like Hoegh was creating a cult rather than a rock concert, no matter how well-meaning it did sounded.

            Although, kids today are buying more music than ever before, they cannot be counted on to buy many albums from a single group. To revive the lagging sales, the music industry turned to spectacle. They try to make the concert flashier, louder, and better than before in hopes of encouraging album sales. U2 tried to ride on this wave to superstardom when they had their expensive PopMart tour. Although there was a great profit created, the audiences did not seem to like the tour and the overall response to the tour was negative. As the “traditional rock concert of the 80’s” faded from popularity, dancing continued to be immensely popular. Then it is no surprise that “raves” or “spontaneous festivals” became an instant success. Like the wave that spontaneously popped up, the rave was subject to the “forces of the market.” Quickly raves disappeared.

            Although not all spectacles are coercive, they do suspend the crowd’s rational thinking and replace it with emotion. 

            Howard Rubenstein was contacted by Kathie Lee Gifford after her infamous scandal about her line of clothing. Her line of clothing was accused of employing sweatshop labor in Honduras. Her lawyers contacted Rubenstein since Katie Lee’s offensive style made her seem like an antagonist. Rubenstein knew that sweatshops were going to be associated with Kathie Lee for the rest of her life, so she might as well make something positive off of it. Rubenstein advised Kathie Lee to be on the defensive by being on the offensive for her newly founded cause. Her new cause was to fight against sweatshops in an effort to seem like the protagonist. Photo-ops are also a good way to seem like the good guy, such as when Kathie Lee’s husband handed out cash to some “confused laborers.”

            To conquer the peoples of India, the British also used a form of PR. Their stationed diplomats and mainly anthropologists gathered information that was later used to defeat the Indians. The British successfully overthrew the legitimate monarchy and then conquered the smaller factions with great ease. Also, the British knew how much the Indians liked architecture. So it should not come as a surprise that they built a grand train station in Bombay.

Bob Deutsch conducts focus groups. To be successful, he has to be provocative. One such incident happened when he interviewed a group of bikers. He learned that they have their tough attitude to minimize their loss.

To muster support for the war, a girl named Nayirah presented testimony in Congress. The Kuwaiti girl said that Iraqi soldiers had ripped babies out of incubators.  This picture not only portrayed Iraq as an evil that had to be fought, but also put Americans in the Kuwaitis shoes. After all if they have modern technologies like an incubator, then the primitive Iraqis must be fought. Once in the Gulf War, the United States adopted neutral slogans like Support our Troops. Well who would not support the soldiers? The slogan took the public away from the facts of the Gulf War to a message of patriotism. Not surprisingly the firm responsible for this fabricated story of helplessly killed babies was damaged severely, because the girl was actually the ambassador’s daughter.

Rushkoff cites many wrong doings in the way public opinion polls are taken. Also, it might seem like the public opinion polls shape the policy of our nation, but rather it just changes the way the policies are packaged. One example of this concerns the way Americans feel about chemical and toxic waste and their effects on the environment. One company changed its image by simply renaming itself to a “greener” name. From Federation of Sewage Works Association, today it is called the Water Environment Federation. See? Much cleaner name creates less suspicion. This same Federation wanted an easy way to dump their toxic waste somewhere. But toxic waste is just such an awfully disgusting name, so after much review they coined the word “biosolids,” a much more pleasant name. Amazing and most frighteningly, this name change produced a catastrophic event. The toxic waste, which could not even go to regular landfill, could now, as “biosolids” be spread over farmland for its great “nutrient value.”

Do you remember “Harry and Louise,” the couple who appeared in the anti-Clinton health-care commercials? Concocted by the pharmaceutical industry, the couple “lamented” over the coverage that they would lose. “To create the illusion of a public outcry against the plan,” the pharmaceutical companies sponsored radio ads on the Rush Limbaugh show urging them to call a 1-800 number. From there, the 1-800 number “telemarketers” would connect them to their congressman’s office where the staffers were unaware that the callers had been carefully “orchestrated” to falsely signal against massive opposition to health care reforms.

Special interest groups sponsor “many of the polls we read about.” Same was true during the 70’s when a mysterious poll came out informing us that two-thirds of Americans want to keep the penny. This poll was funded by the zinc industry (zinc is a main component in pennies). Instead of questioning the red coin’s expensiveness, the newspapers wrote “heartwarming stories” about the America’s love affair with the penny.

            Pollsters can achieve virtually any result from polls by difference of wording and sequence of questions. Polls influence people because of their seemingly objective nature. The way people are asked also has great effects on a poll's reliability. For example, “undecided” is sometimes not an answer that could be given by the respondents. We are forced to make “snapped decisions” instead of carefully thought out ones, and polls pull us away from the real issues by focusing our attention on the unimportant “smear campaigns.”

            For companies that cannot find “polling data to support their claims” often resort to buying facts from institution. For example the American Medical Association sold the Sunbeam Corporation the right to display the AMA logo on their medical products and the American Cancer Society lends its name to the Florida Orange Growers Association. Though the products themselves are not necessarily flawed because of these endorsements, the reason they have the endorsement is purely a monetary one. These same types of corporations also pay institutions to conduct their research to support their claims.

            Rushkoff relates a story from his first days as a PR consultant. He talked at a business conference in Europe discussing the threat the Internet posed to businesses. The airlines Rushkoff consulted for learned that its pilots were threatening to use the Internet to publish their stories “intended to scare away the customers.” Rushkoff told them that, however, they could not use the Internet to “censor” the pilots.

            Rubenstein says that in today’s world of instant of news, telling the truth is important because the truth has always some way of seeping out. Marv Albert tried this strategy and even might have over done it. After his sex scandal he went on numerous talk shows appearing to “diminish” the incident and the only place he actually admitted his guilt was in the courtroom. Clinton used many of the same techniques during his many scandals. He also had an attitude that implied that he thought the Internet could be something controlled. His opinion on that probably changed when in 1999 the Monica Lewinsky story broke. Clinton tried to prevent the story from taking shape by not commenting and thus starving off the media from the story. The regular television and news media dared not to report the graphically disturbing stories that were just then surfacing. It was only after had the stories been published on the Internet that the regular media broadcasted it, which of course led to the congressional investigation and so forth.

            Wells BDDP, an advertising agency, had bold plans for the future. They were launching their completely new headquarters in New York City. Before their headquarters were finished though, the agency would declare bankruptcy. This unimaginable fate of the company, which used to be the premier name in advertisement, surprised many. The company got a revitalization when a new man named Douglas Atkin joined. He hoped to create advertising tools that were effective in creating media virus and tools that that were reusable in other accounts. One of his first major jobs was to create an ad for the Amstel brand that claimed the beer’s “open-mindedness.” The problem was not that people did not feel open-minded; it is how they defined open-mindedness. The challenge for Atkin was to create an ad that touched on open-mindedness, but to explain it in broader terms so as to appeal to more people. The antagonistic fictional Garrison Boyd had to be created. Garrison Boyd was and old man who opposed any open-mindedness. The fictitious Americans for Disciplined Behavior headed by the fictitious Boyd “took it on himself to combat” Amstel. However, Atkin did not do a good job at portraying Boyd to be fake enough for consumers to see that Amstel was just kidding; 30% of Americans thought that these ads were real. As a consultant, Rushkoff explained to the ad agency that for the Boyd ads to spread they needed to have real content, “which would stir up people.” Unable to make a decision, the beer manufacturer pulled its account from Wells. Procter & Gamble soon followed suit. The lack of revenues eventually sank the once mighty agency.

            Branding a product is not necessarily coercive. For example, images and cartoons characters, like the Jolly Green Giant, help a person to remember a brand’s name. It is when ads are purely based on image and the “product’s attributes” are ignored that advertisement becomes coercive. Also, an ad can be filed under coercive when the image goes from a quick mnemonic for a product to some sort of an emotional modifier. These emotional modifiers came into mainstream advertisement in the 60’s. Some basic rules were developed dictating for making television ads: the specific angles and positions of a camera, opening in an interesting manner, and text “superimposed” on the screen. These techniques promote “brand image” rather than a real product. The creators of these techniques believed that people could not distinguish between products, so instead they choose based upon image.

            The larger the target audience for a product, the better. The executives at Fox seemed to know how to use this technique. While the new cartoon character on Fox, Hank Hill, appealed to most Americans as an “everyman,” the Jewish population in New York felt much differently. They did not understand the “everyman” type humor. To appeal to the Jews, Fox setup billboards in Manhattan that pandered the Jewish customs, while appearing to be “non-threatening.”

 “The real intention for marketing to children” is that their young impressionable brains retain a lot of what they remember. This creates a “long term coercive strategy.”

            Phychographic targeting aims a people’s interests rather than their backgrounds. For example, researchers have found that advertising cars by their styles; sport, practical, etc., fares better than demographic targeting.

            Like dramatic stories that someone might remember for all of their lives for their value, commercials try to do the same by impressing us with “brand values”. As the tension level in the story rises, we are drawn farther in. We get hooked on and dependent on these story and we want the story to end. Commercials work in the same way; they produce an anxiety, not too great or we would not watch the whole commercial, and pull us in until a resolution is offered. For example, a “midlevel executive” is at his office. He is very tense because his phone is ringing, his boss is angry, his wife crashed the car, and etc. The resolution in this case is some pain reliever pills.

            There have been many mediums that have undermined the authority of the media and television. The remote control undermined the audience’s laziness to get up and switch the remote control. Video games did the same by allowing the audience to manipulate the screen that before was untouchable. Another great advance towards demystifying television was the video camera. It allowed us to be just like the pros by editing out footage.

            “Advertisers are well aware of the of our changing viewing habits.” When consumers got tired of the large, glitzy ad campaigns of large beer manufactures, they turned to “local breweries for authenticity.” Large companies tried to replicate this success by inventing their own “microband.”

            “Advertisers are learning to stay one step ahead” of us. They create ads that are hard to deconstruct, such as ads featuring body parts instead of the full body. Iconic representations are hard not to identify with. They are not specific so they can also target a large audience. A very good icon, such as the Nike swoosh, is very appealing because of its simplicity.

Marketers, aware that “irony makes us feel safe,” use it in their ads. Noticing how the commercial makes fun of all the other boring ads rewards the ironic viewer. The reason behind this coercive advertisement is quite simple. The marketers know that the viewer likes to be in control and this means the viewer wants to be able to know what type of marketing technique is used against him. So by “winking” at the viewer, the ads try to show the viewer that he knows what technique is being used.

            Starting in the 50’s, advertisers sought to convince us we are unworthy. The response from the ad made you think you are just like that person, except, you do not have what the person in the advertisement had. This gave you a goal to aspire to. The ads of today make us feel the same way. However, they use presumptive language. In the case of one of Calvin Klein’s fragrances, the ad reads it’s about freedom to express yourself, which presupposes you cannot express you freedom. It is very unlikely though that perfume will make you feel better with simple no other effort.

            This section, possibly the most heinous, explores the world of pyramids and their deceitful techniques. Stephanie dropped out of college because she got pregnant and she then married. Her life with a modest income was “manageable.” She had wanted to move to a safer neighborhood, so she decided to look for some extra income. With her fields of employment narrow, she ran by a flier promising an outrageous amount of income.  After requesting further information, a woman named Barbara visited Stephanie and told her about the great opportunities. Barbara told Stephanie that she needed to invest $600 and that after four weeks of selling $200 worth of supplies, she would be named “regional director,” earning an much wanted extra $500 every week.

            Unsure of this scheme, Stephanie was invited by Barbara to a company-sponsored event. The event turned out to be a “rally.” Women testified about how much they sold and how many new people they signed up. After each woman, the participants clapped and cheered. After that, Barbara told everyone about Stephanie and how she wanted to join. A group of “supportive” women joined around Stephanie and related all of their experiences to hers. Stephanie was successfully coerced into joining.

            As the weeks went by, Stephanie seemed to be making less and less money. To meet her quota, she sold herself some. Somehow, though, she did manage to make her $800 quota minimum and it was now time for her to enlist six new members. She enrolled four people with some difficulty, but she could not get any more recruits. So she decided to enroll her children. She figured that she only needed to sell an extra $400 each week and that even if she did not, her $500 bonus could cover the cost. One thing that Stephanie did not figure was that if her salespeople did not sell their $200, there would be no $500 bonus for her. After all of her salespeople dropped, she had to follow suit. She, like most everyone else, she had “fallen victim to one of the most dependable coercive systems.”

            In a pyramid, the goal is to have “no disclosed value.” This way the victim feels that there is something “special” at the top. “It must appear limitless, and thus capable of rewarding an unlimited number of new seekers.” Also, pyramids rely on getting new members rather than selling a product.

            One of these multilevel marketing scheme is a company called Mary Kay. Like many others, one of the techniques that Mary Kay uses is reference to God in an effort to look divinely inspired. Mary Kay tries to rationalize the dishonesty of enrolling friends and family members. The company tells them that although they will experience difficulties, they too will see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some companies replaced the godly image with a “New Age” image promoting supposedly healthy and health enhancing products.

Even though these companies have a some-what legitimate product to sell, even more malicious multilevel marketing schemes are the ponzis. Named for Charles Ponzi an Italian immigrant, “who sought to capitalize on the simple principle of geometric progression.” He guaranteed paying 50% in 45 days by recruiting members who would pay off the older members. However as the money dried up, people lost entire life-savings. The problem in any ponzi scheme is exactly what Ponzi tried to capitalize on: geometric progression. There are simply not enough people for any ponzi scheme, because they always require new recruits. If a scheme required that you enrolled 10 new members, you would have to have 1000 people by the third round. By the sixth round 1,000,000 people would have to join. By the ninth and final mathematically possible round there would be need to be 1,000,000,000 members.   

Rushkoff shares an experience with a “pyramid persuasive tug.” His now-estranged girlfriend told him to meet her New Age cult leader. Rushkoff was surprised by the leader’s Western style; there were no Oriental gongs or such. As an introduction, the cult leader brought Rushkoff to a room and amazed him with a magical colors sensation, although later it will be revealed this was just a clever trick. The guru told Rushkoff that he was eligible for other “color cleansings” at a whopping $200. However after a few of these “cleansings” a further cleansing would be required costing $2000. Rushkoff later learned from former member that the guru used these cleansing sessions to be sexual with women. She was made a liar before the entire cult when she accused the guru. Rushkoff tried to persuade his girlfriend to disengage from the group, but she was already too far in to pull out.

The question arises: Why do cult members allow themselves to be subjected to such brutality and exploitation and once they reach higher levels why do they themselves commit atrocities? Although there is no simple explanation for this, by looking at the structure of fraternities and street gangs we can come closer to understanding. The more pain some goes through to be a member, the more valuable that membership is going to be.

After much research, Rushkoff presented his findings about cults in a 20-point format to his former employer Wells BDDP. These steps are most occurring in religious groups, but the apply to ponzis and multilevel marketing schemes as well.

Cult brands seem to work in the same way as cults. Apple computer belongs to this category. The “Think Different” capitalizes on the users’ decision to “defy conformity.” The nice-guy founder, Steve Jobs, “symbolizes” the company’s “creative spirit.” However, not much software is available for Apple computers. Users’ must become “unpaid costumer-service representatives” online to help people learn about the Apple computer. Even more dedicated people get to in the company’s “inner circle” and learn about company “secrets.” Many people feel badly about a company’s decision, like when Steve Jobs sold Apple to Microsoft, but usually end up saying that the leader knew best.

Although the stock market is necessary for companies to “raise capital” for their ventures, an established company no longer sells directly to the public, instead, individuals and firms trade stocks with each other. They try to outguess each other in order to make money. However, this game of selling stocks is no other than another pyramid. In fact its clever design makes it an “automated pyramid.” And like in any other pyramid game, people at the bottom are the ones to “get screwed.” Usually the people on CNNfn and CNBC who recommend a stock to buy or to sell have that stock. And since they are on television we can assume they have a lot more shares than the regular investor. If they want to buy share X at a low price, they tell everyone to sell the stocks, which creates a drop in the value. After they bought the share at a discount price, they tell everyone else to buy it, which raises the price. Then, they sell the share and create a large profit. Even if they manage to raise a stock by just a tenth of a point they can gain enormous money. For example, let’s say you have a $10 million stock investment. If the stock creeps up just 1%, you gain $100,000. Virtual stock trading places tend to confuse the new investor and “pump new blood and new money into the game.” The “technocapitalist’s” theme of more technology, the more profit has an ominous ring to it. The more technology that is distributed, the more people can join aboard, which is the same goal as the Mary Kay Company. Like Mary Kay, they advise us to “keep the faith;” the promise of rewards at the top of the pyramid.

Although democracies tend to cradle capitalism, it is a mistake for the two words to become synonymous. The latter reduces a society to “its monetary value.”

The executives who thought they could control the Internet the way they could control television were wrong. People, like Rushkoff, who were optimistic about Internet and thought that it would create some sort of a technological utopia, were also wrong. As the Internet became more and more popular, the television executives panicked that they were loosing the audience at a noticeable rate every month. The media and television protected themselves by merging with other companies and prepared to battle the Internet.

One problem with trying to “win back the media” was you really could not charge anybody for anything online, except for the phone lines they were using. Rushkoff, ironically, saw things in the completely different way. He personally thought that Internet would actually reduce coercion. One way a company thought that they could “cash in” was by providing online users with copyrighted materials for sale. This was a lot less interactive than anything at the time, so it failed miserably. In order to succeed, corporations had to convince us that communicating was less important than the “data downloaded” and our ability to purchase things online. Since now the Internet was information and not people, it could have a “price tag.”

Another way in which corporation tried to win back the Internet was with publishing false or over-blown stories claiming the Internet to be full of damaging viruses and pornographic content. Browser systems become ever more complex to use and required frequent updates aimed at making the Web less human. Codes for programs were no longer released online, so the public could not modify them and make them better. A final blow came when stories spurred up claiming the Web’s creation was based upon the Defense Department’s secret plans, rather than “university researchers.” The constant need for upgrades puts us in a position of a constant cycle.

Rushkoff with some friends published an online document, technorealism, criticizing how the market took control of the Internet. The document was openly criticized by people who never even bothered to read it.

“Virtual coercion” did not start with the Internet. It started with “direct-mail” (junk mail) back in 1923. On the Internet, the “spam” or massive ads in email is the “direct-mail.” The seemingly self-customized ads evolved from the PRIZM research firm. They classified each American into 40 different basic lifestyle segments. Companies that we buy anything from sell that information to firms that analyze it and then sell it back to companies. Over the years this analysis has gotten so complicated that “a direct-mail text book looks like math book.”

Telemarketers use these same techniques, except, they get an immediate response from the customers which they record and reconfigure their scripts to use next time. Scriptwriters are hired to create “branching scripts” that follow the customer to any response he may give. One tactic they use was adding regional locations to the script. MCI came out with an ad humanizing the whole telemarketing scheme. Their commercials featured telemarketers talking to each, in a very human way. The purpose behind the ads was to “shroud a mechanized, computer-generated, and psychographically tuned script in the cloak of simulated humanity.”

The Internet is a “self-customizing” environment. Email offers a wide variety of tactics for advertisers. They can blast us with millions of emails for almost nothing. As people started to be wearier of ad emails, marketers have devised tactics used to getting us to read these emails. The subject line might be disguised as if it were a friend’s. One option to get rid of these emails is to block off anyone who is not in your address book. The problem arises that you cannot receive emails from people whom you did not yet put in your address book. Some companies who try not to look sleazy offer “pay-the-customer advertising” where a person is paid for reading an advertisement or playing a promotional game. However legitimate they look, these coercive forces “voluntarily submission” out of the user.

The banner ads on the net analyze our every reaction to them. Our browsers also send out our email addresses and they track us down in an attempt to sell us some product. A group of hackers attempted to use cookies to hack into our computers and deliver a “continuous” flow of information back to the programmer. Marketers argue that with this type of customization, the Internet will become a better experience. However, this can only lead to a controlled environment. One company is even researching how to go about collecting the many UPC codes that customers accumulates as a result of buying products.     

The Internet is quickly turning from a “convenience to a necessity.” Take Microsoft’s new developments. Since most of the browsers belong to Microsoft, they can squeeze off any other fledgling competion by their new feature called Sidewalk. This website utilizes many of the browsers capabilities, forcing consumers to use the Internet Explorer if they want to use the Sidewalk site. Constant upgrades provide us with new features that we will not use, but are needed to run some features that we do need. If we protest this monopoly or any other, we will hurt ourselves more, unless there is a large group of people who protests. Rushkoff ends the book at an unexpected high and optimistic note. He believes one day we will tire of all of this coercion and that we will want to “think for ourselves.” Maybe.

Stephanie, the woman who joined the pyramid scheme, finally dropped out after bringing her family into serious debt. She now works for a computer company as a customer-service representative. Her job mandates that she turn down customers’ complaints, or she earns a bad mark and gets reprimanded. From the work related stress and depression, she is now on a blood pressure medication. She no longer goes to church, instead she shops with her husband on Sundays, the only day they have off.  She seems to have lost connection with the world, according to Rushkoff who calls every few months.

Mort Spivas, the mechanical bed salesman, joined a spiritual group in New Mexico. This cult influenced Mort so much that he has since cut off any communications with Rushkoff.

Douglas Atkin of the doomed Wells BDDP became partners at a smaller agency.

All of them quit their jobs to become a better person – after years of coercion. But is what they are doing today any different? No. Stephanie works for a company that purposely turns away any customers that have a complaint. Mort joined a coercive cult. Atkin believes he will be creating a better “television media.”

Ironically, even the author himself was almost seduced by coercive powers just as he was finishing this book. Rushkoff was invited to a market-research firm to talk to marketers. He lectured about creating less coercive advertisement. The boss at this firm is Davis Masten who invited Rushkoff to his home. On their drive to the home, Rushkoff noticed the expensive houses along the way. He was pondering whether to ask Masten if he would consider giving him a job at the firm.

Rushkoff explains that we have become obsessed with buying and selling things. Coercion simply makes us lose our rationalizing ability.  Rushkoff concludes that we are all coercers and coercees. The “they” is no other than us. Rushkoff puts it very convincingly: Without us, they don’t exist.

Copyright © 2001 by Andras Konya