Purpose – The promise of marketing is great: a responsive, consumer‐oriented business philosophy that uses a wide selection of carefully honed tools to provide excellent service in perpetuity. The reality, however, is far removed from this idyll. This paper seeks to examine the power of...

Purpose – The paper aims to discuss the thorny issues of industry‐funded social marketing campaigns. Can the tobacco industry be trusted to educate our children about the dangers of smoking? Is a brewer the best source of health promotion? The paper argues for transparency and critical...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to question the role of corporate marketing in society and suggest ways of combating it. Design/methodology/approach – The problems are urgent and the style is polemical. Findings – Marketing is as old as human civilisation; it enables us to engage in...