Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults
by Dr. Mara Einstein, PhD
What makes the cult marketing vortex so attractive to otherwise smart people, and how does online manipulation render us victim to the dangerous whims of digital companies, corporations, and conglomerates? Hoodwinked reveals the new world of digital marketing where steady, seductive tactics once used by spiritual charlatans are now applied to sell everything from toothpaste to apps and even political leaders. Big brands are the gods of today’s world, and the algorithm is their gospel. Companies have discovered that consumers are lured by sophisticated and deceptive marketing techniques, like sensory marketing, influencers, and AI programmed to induce maximum anxiety—all of which compel us to buy things we don’t need or cannot afford. Buoyed by the greed of social media CEOs, marketers use the emotionally manipulative tactics that cults do, including scarcity, an all-encompassing ideology, manufactured FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), and a charismatic leader. Once indoctrinated, consumer-followers become ensnared in the perfect capitalist loop: anxiety-purchase-anxiety-purchase-anxiety-purchase. Then, social media reinforces the cycle of purchase, performance, and panic.
Using real-life cautionary tales, Dr. Einstein narrates how smart, sensible people are sucked into the cult marketing vortex and, importantly, what enables them to get out. Protection comes from understanding the scope of the problem and knowing how to spot the many pervasive tactics used. Combining industry interviews, advertising campaign analysis, and business and scholarly research, Hoodwinked offers an insider’s view into how marketers co-opt our emotions in the name of corporate profits. Armed with this information, readers can learn to spot cult-inspired marketing so they can decide how, or if, they should engage with it.
