Journal of Macromarketing 30(2) 133-146 ª The Author(s) 2010 Screening Not Greening: An Ecological Reprints and permission sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Reading of the Greatest Business Movies DOI: 10.1177/0276146710361921 http://jmk.sagepub.com

Pierre McDonagh1 and Pat Brereton2

Abstract This article submits that filmic representations of the market are important points for consideration in macromarketing scholar- ship. As such business movies visualize the marketplace that has itself been recently termed the agora in this journal. The top ten greatest business movies as selected by a panel of experts for Forbes magazine are considered from an ecological point of view (POV). The authors submit that the dominant social paradigm (DSP) is the culture within the movies and as such the business movie does not generally present business and/or materialism in an ecologically benevolent manner. The authors remark on the consequences of this for the future.

Keywords Forbes, top ten business movies, dominant social paradigm, film theory, ecology

Screening analysis of consumption for a number of years (see, e.g., Holbrook and Hirschmann 1993), which specifically analyzed In 2008, Americans spent quite an amount going to the the number one business movie Citizen Kane (see chap. 2, movies—US$9.78 billion in estimated receipts, which is 2 per- 99-109) while examining the central narrative figure, Charles cent up on the previous year and based on around 1.36 billion Foster Kane as an exemplar of secular consumption. In their ticket sales in America and Canada (DiOro 2008). Going to the analysis of structural and functional relationships, Holbrook movies and watching movies allow people to relax, be and Hirschmann also examine television soaps such as Dallas entertained, and also form opinions about a number of issues and Dynasty as well as three of the top business movies as listed in society. Our society—good, bad, and ugly is depicted on the by Forbes, Wall Street, (ranked 8th) the Godfather parts I and II big screen and its influence over us in terms of education (or (no. four and no. two in Forbes’ rankings, respectively) and indeed propaganda) is worthy of note. The movies are clearly illustrate how money cannot buy happiness. Our important for society and thus should be scrutinized from a research goal here is to problematize the myth (Holbrook and macromarketing perspective. The authors submit that filmic Hirschmann 1993) of top business motion pictures (movies) representations of nature, while multifarious have a tendency by considering preselected top business movies ecologically to present nature as the resource for business and the market speaking. The authors submit that the business movie has not to engage in economic progress. This is in contradistinction privileged ecology. Rather, the business movie depicts nature to the belief that characters must save the planet—namely a as an economic resource and as a result the business movie utopian agenda as articulated for instance by Harvey (2000, seems to perpetuate the dominant social paradigm (DSP) and 195) in Spaces of Hope, where he states: the quest for materialism inherent in this. Such movies also dis- enfranchise a business role with regard to sustainability. The The broad rejection of utopianism over the past two decades or authors argue that following Prothero and Fitchett (2000) in so should be understood as a collapse of specific utopian forms, this journal that it does not have to be this way. The authors both East and West .... Communism has been largely discre- dited ... so should we just let the whole idea of utopianism of any sort die an unmourned death? Or should we try to rekindle and reignite utopian passions once more as a means to 1 Centre for Consumption Studies, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland galvanize socio-ecological change? 2 Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland Perhaps, as a consequence, filmic representations of business have not yet actively engaged with a green agenda (encapsu- Corresponding Author: Pierre McDonagh, Centre for Consumption Studies, Dublin City University, lated in the quest for sustainable consumption) in depicting Dublin 9, Ireland. business in society. There has been admiral ongoing semiotic Email: [email protected]

Downloaded from jmk.sagepub.com at UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA on June 17, 2016 133 134 Journal of Macromarketing 30(2) pose the question—what conditions are needed to facilitate an the main venues of ecocriticm of the sustained application of ecological change being represented as cool in a top ten ecocritical strategies to film and cinema studies. business movie? It is important to add an ecological lens to the greatest busi- So, in a sense, the authors are echoing Holt’s 2002 question ness movies though and others note that the wider public is ‘‘why do brands cause trouble?’’ by considering why do the top heavily swayed by their belief system, that is, the DSP, in ten greatest business movies cause ecological trouble? What is which business is complicit (see Kilbourne, McDonagh, and worthy of note though is the difference the authors find, unlike Prothero 1997). The DSP is perceived or generally understood Holt (2002, 9) who can claim the following: by the public to be the best mechanism to respond to problems of what to do in society especially around concerns many have Revolutionary consumers helped to create the market for about planet earth. This, it is argued, also positively feeds into Volkswagen and Nike and accelerated the demise of Sears and debates around materialism (see Kilbourne et al. 2009). The Oldsmobile. They never threatened the market itself. What has ecological results are cataclysmic; first the paradoxical prob- been termed ‘‘consumer resistance’’ is actually a form of lem that people are socialized into accepting the basic tenets market-sanctioned cultural experimentation through which the of materialism (shorthand for ‘‘a mode of expressive behaviour market rejuvenates itself. by individuals in that it is consumption for purposes other than instrumental value, or the immediate utility, provided by the We can make no such claim of the Forbes’greatestbusiness object possessed’’ [Kilbourne et al. 2009, 3]) while also believ- movies. To date, we neither have evidence to sustain a claim that ing they must save the planet, as opposed to the human species there has been green rejuvenation in the top business movie list- living on it! Second, people turn to the DSP for solutions, while ings nor indeed any clear sense of appropriation of green coun- this DSP lead us to the present state of affairs in the first place. terculture (Desmond, McDonagh, and O’Donohoe 2000) in this So what of film? Without a doubt, the role of the big screen in regard. In this respect, the authors seek to redress Ivakhiv’s our everyday lives varies of course. Consider the following (2008) observation with their simple efforts to have the top ten assertion by Adorno (2001, 181) on the effects of film: greatest business movies cast in a clearer ecological light. The authors submit that, in a sense, it helps them understand If today you can see in Germany, in Prague even in these works in a fresh new way and to realize how in this age conservative Switzerland and in Catholic Rome, everywhere, the business movie can best be seen as a branch of the study of boys and girls crossing the streets locked in each others arms nature itself; the authors can perhaps think of them as repre- and kissing each other unembarrassed, then they have learned senting the spectacle of the DSP. Furthermore, responding also this, and probably more, from the films that peddle Parisian to Holbrook (2000, 2001a, 2001b) who emphasizes consump- libertinage as folklore. tion as entertainment, the authors posit that there is a powerful interchange between how the market is played out on the big So, for many like Adorno, film has a propound influence in screen within the Sony multiplex and how the human ! planet framing how we conceptualize and address ourselves and life- relationship is misunderstood in the search for pleasure in the styles and by inference our global problems or as Adorno cinematic; this relationship is foundational in attempts to instil (1984, 101) writes, ‘‘In every perception of nature there is actu- ecological sustainability in society or bring about a greening of ally present the whole of society.’’ Fischer (2005, 27) extends the commodity form (Prothero and Fitchett 2000). The rela- this reading of Adorno on nature by reminding us that ‘‘Ador- tionship normally takes the following form where the market no’s hypothesis with regard to a psychology of civilization dominates nature, market ! nature means that man’s brute force against nature encourages him So, to use Franks’ (1997, chap. 11) terminology, big busi- to use violence against other human beings as well.’’ As well ness remains ‘‘cool’’ in relation to its appropriation of hip as as stipulating that (Fischer 2005, 31) ‘‘Adorno questions civili- official capitalist style (in British advertising, business refer- zation’s unrestrained justification to dominate nature, which is ents become cool during the mid-1980s as James Bond stereo- different from primitive people’s conception of the world.’’ So, types appeared less often in adverts in favor of the powerful it is not just the violence to nature but also to other humans that signifiers of transformative young business executives [BBC is at stake here. Indeed, it has been noted elsewhere that ecol- 2008]). Sometimes, we get an occasional text that reverses this ogy and antislavery are sometimes thrown in opposition to one trend, but it is coded as a protest piece, social activism, or a another (McDonagh 2002). documentary by an acclaimed public persona (cf. Al Gore’s One contemporary writer Ivakhiv (2008, 1) affirms that: An Inconvenient Truth), or an undisputed authority such as David Attenborough’s Life on Earth series for the BBC. Iva- Most references to film among ecocritics tend to be films that khiv (2008) also remarks that over the past six years, we have are explicitly ‘‘environmental’’, especially those that portray seen environmental themes in experimental cinema, which are nature and its defenders positively, as for instance, Gorillas extensively explored in Scott MacDonald’s The Garden in the in the Mist, Koyaanisqatsi, Never Cry Wolf, On Deadly Ground, Machine. In addition, as pointed out by Mayumi, Solomon, and and Erin Brockovich. Rarely has cinema in general been viewed Chang (2005, 2), other forms of movie genre, namely anima- through an ecocritical lens, nor has there been much evidence in tion have addressed the ecological question:

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Table 1. Forbes’’ Ten Greatest Business Movies

Movie Director Cast Highlights

No. 1. Citizen Kane (RKO Radio Orson Welles Orson Welles directed and starred as Charles Foster Kane. Welles Pictures, 1941) and Herman Mankiewicz wrote the script. Joseph Cotten played Jedediah Leland No. 2. The Godfather: Part II Francis Ford Mario Puzo wrote the novel and wrote the screenplay with Coppola. Al Pacino as Michael (Paramount, 1974) Coppola Corleone, Robert De Niro as young Vito Corleone, Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth, Michael Gazzo as Frankie Pentangeli No. 3. It’s a Wonderful Life (RKO Frank Capra James Stewart as George Bailey, Donna Reed as Mary Hatch-Bailey, Lionel Barrymore as Radio Pictures, 1946) Mr. Potter, Henry Travers as Clarence No. 4. The Godfather (Paramount, Francis Ford Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, Al Pacino as his favored son Michael, James Caan as 1972) Coppola Sonny Corleone, Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, John Cazale as Fredo Corleone, Diane Keaton as Kay Adams-Corleone No. 5. Network (MGM-United Sidney Lumet Paddy Chayefsky wrote the script. Faye Dunaway as Diana Christensen, William Holden Artists, 1976) as Max Schumacher, Peter Finch as Howard Beale, Robert Duvall as Frank Hackett No. 6. The Insider (Touchstone Michael Mann Mann and Eric Roth wrote the script from a magazine story by Marie Brenner. Al Pacino as Pictures, 1999) Lowell Bergman, Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand, Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace No. 7. Glengarry Glen Ross (New James Foley David Mamet wrote the script from his play. Jack Lemmon as Shelley Levene, Al Pacino as Line Cinema, 1992) Richard ‘‘Ricky’’ Roma, Alan Arkin as George Aaronow, Alec Baldwin as Blake No. 8. Wall Street (20th Century Oliver Stone Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, Charlie Sheen as Bud Fox Fox, 1987) No. 9. Tin Men (Touchstone Barry Levinson wrote the script. Richard Dreyfuss as Bill ‘‘BB’’ Babowsky, Danny DeVito as Pictures, 1987) Levinson Ernest Tilley, Barbara Hershey as Nora Tilley No. 10. Modern Times (United Charlie Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, starred, and composed the music Artists, 1936) Chaplin

Source: Ackman 2002, http://www.forbes.com/2002/12/16/cx_da_1216bizmovies.html.

While many fairly serious films have been directed at explicitly Schroeder and Borgerson 2005) to enrich the popular consumer environmental or ecological subjects (e.g., Chinatown, China response perspective and more recent critical historical analy- Syndrome, Blade Runner, Silkwood, Dune, Akira, Gorillas in sis (Bell 2008) of management in film, the authors chose to the Mist, Milagro Beanfield War, Fire Down Below, A Civil examine Forbes magazine’s top ten greatest business movies. Action, Erin Brockovich), Miyazaki [who directed Spirited Forbes is an American publishing and media company and the Away, to be discussed later among others] is an animator and magazine is its flagship publication. Forbes magazine is pub- storyteller whose main audience is children. Yet, he has a cul- lished biweekly. The magazine is well known for its lists, tural and ethical dimension in his films that is sorely lacking in including its lists of the richest Americans (the Forbes 400) and all but the most specialized movies of any genre. Having its list of billionaires. The motto of Forbes magazine is ‘‘The viewed many of his beautiful films, we are struck by the clarity Capitalist Tool.’’ The article examines how working for For- of his message on ecological and societal problems, even when bes, Ackman (2002) used a panel of experts, see table 2, to sur- those problems are rather complex (which is often the case). vey what were the best business movies and the authors In these cases, the authors submit the relationship is momenta- consider the result of this exercise. This adds to work that pre- viously considered the aggregate influence of film critics (see rily reversed as follows, nature ! market. This article highlights these relationships as the norm within Eliashberg and Shugen 1997) on box office takings. In this society by an ecological reading of what film experts agree to regard, the authors observe how the market has been repre- be the top ten greatest business movies, see table 1. The authors sented on the big screen. submit a textual analysis must engage with the form and gram- mar of cinema and concentrate on how meaning is created (see Brereton 2001; Bordwell 1985, 1989); Appendix 1 gives key Reading Movies (Following on From David Bordwell) terms used in such textual analysis. The most promising avenues for the textual analysis of film according to David Bordwell, are through ‘‘poetic analysis’’ On Method and Analysis that focus on ‘‘compositional processes of form and style’’ Following calls for more critical research in visual consump- (Bordwell 1989, 270, 271). In a review in Wide Angle, Herb tion (see Schroeder 2006; Schroeder and McDonagh 2005; Eagle clarified Bordwell’s views on film interpretation in

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Table 2. Forbes Best Business Movies: Panel of Judges which leaves no question unanswered and in which everything that interests us finds its fixed place’’ (in Bordwell 1989). Judith Crist, film critic and journalism professor, Columbia University Matthew Gross, president of production, Kopelson Entertainment Bordwell considers that Marxist theory in particular ignores the Lawrence Inglee, vice president, the Mark Gordon Co. active role of the viewer compared with cognitive theory, Patricia Hanson, executive editor and project director, American Film which is a more productive form of ‘‘meta-aesthetic theory, Institute grounded on empirical studies of relevant psychological beha- Rick Jewell, film professor, University of Southern California viour’’ (Bordwell 1989, 273). According to cognitivists, Peter Kafka, staff writer, Forbes ‘‘viewers construct a hypothesis about the meaning of the Michael Lewis, author events they perceive. They then match narrative events to this Hunt Lowry, president and CEO, Gaylord Films Jack Mathews, film critic, New York Daily News hypothesis so as to infer a films meaning. In comprehending or Chad Oman, president of production, Jerry Bruckheimer Films interpreting the screened images, viewers actually construct the Bob Osher, co-president of production, Miramax Films film from cues in the text.’’ Bordwell and others therefore sug- Chris Petriken, agent, William Morris Agency gest that the construction of meaning is not necessarily defined Jerry I. Porras, professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business by, much less reduced to, top-down ideological structures. Tim Sarnoff, president, Sony Pictures Imageworks To develop a ‘‘genuine’’ film theory (which emphasizes the Robert Sklar, film professor, New York University unique value of ‘‘interpretation’’), Bordwell cogently affirms Richard Walter, film professor, University of California, Los Angeles that a critic must frame enquiries built around precisely formu- Source: Ackman 2002, http://www.forbes.com/2002/12/16/cx_da_1216bizmovies. lated hypotheses, not illustrations of extrinsically valorized the- html ories. The greatest danger particularly with this ecological discourse involves appearing to endorse and embody naive, universal, organic metaphors/symbols, since these can become general, exposing the ever present tension between ‘‘theory’’ essentialist, ahistorical, even fascistic, and can be used to fill and ‘‘interpretation’’: the vacuum left by the discrediting of other metanarratives out- side of sociohistorical reality. Following the hermeneutic When interpreters ‘‘apply’’ theory, they do so principally in a piecemeal, ad hoc, and expansionist manner. Theory functions approach of Paul Ricoeur, Dudley Andrew particularly as a black box; if it gets the job done, there is no need to look addresses the most contentious difficulty of textual analysis: inside (250). Critics generally provide no intrinsic theoretical the danger of essentializing—making determinist readings, justification for their practices. Secondly, semantic fields which which draw on ‘‘authoritative’’ interpretations. This is heigh- underlie conclusions are usually given a priori, ‘‘not so much tened by the current demand to analyze films as ‘‘potential explored as invoked to serve as fixed points of reference’’ sources of new meanings rather than as mere vehicles of uni- (260). Finally, interpretation, Bordwell argues, whatever its versal (ideological) laws’’ (Andrews, in Klemm and Schweiker merits, is not a substitute for genuine film theory and poetics 1993, 120). (Eagle 1983, 118/123). Andrews continues that ‘‘essentialism follows when theory aims to explain the power of cinema through such effectively While this dilemma over theory and interpretation cannot be timeless factors as technology, biology, [ecology,] psychology, resolved through seeking the methodological ‘‘holy grail,’’ logical structure, or language’’ (Andrews, in Klemm and Bordwell believes he has found the solution within the field Schweiker 1993, 120). However, as Buckland (2003) suggests of cognitive theory, which has become a popular multidisci- ‘‘by concentrating on the composition of single films,’’ histor- plinary study, claiming to produce a more coherent textual ical poetics, (adapting the Bordwell model above) can begin to methodology. The proponents of cognitive film theory include redress this form of essentialism and ‘‘go some way to explain- David Bordwell, Noel Carroll, and Edward Branigan, who ana- ing the popularity of individual films, particularly the lyze cinematic comprehension in terms of ‘‘active viewers’’ blockbuster’’ (in Neale and Smith 1998, 169). using ‘‘ordinary’’ psychological processes and strategies of While Bordwell in particular can be described as ‘‘monoma- problem solving. Narrative film viewing, they claim, consists niacal’’ in his preoccupation with a ‘‘functionalist, goal- of the same sorts of top-down (conceptualizing and inferring) orientated, problem/solution approach to the formal and and bottom-up (sensory, data-driven, and automatic) psycholo- stylistic operations of film’’ (Hurley, 1999), his continuing gical processes that perceivers use to understand events in the influence on the forms of textual analysis cannot be underesti- world around them. mated. The authors wholeheartedly endorse his emphasis on Bordwell, in particular remains very critical of Althusserian/ ‘‘concrete’’ textual analysis that functions within a ‘‘poetic Lacanian theory of film, which he claims employs a mystifica- framework,’’ uncovering the contextual ‘‘value’’ of the film tion of meaning that eludes ‘‘ordinary processes’’ of cognitive text. However, not surprisingly, he is also dangerously close development. For instance, the struggle for a universal ecologi- to constructing a pseudoscientific monolithic methodology of cal reading strategy could degenerate into a search for what his own as he tries to have it both ways. Nevertheless, drawing Freud called a ‘‘Weltanschauung,’’ which is described as an on pioneers like Hugo Munsterberg (1918), Bazin and even ‘‘intellectual construction’’ to solve ‘‘all the problems of our Kracauer (1947), Bordwell has been able to forge a counterba- existence uniformly on the basis of one overriding hypothesis, lancing strategy for textual analysis, which has played a

136 Downloaded from jmk.sagepub.com at UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA on June 17, 2016 McDonagh and Brereton 137 dominant role in film criticism for many years. While often at (see Brereton 2005). Nonetheless, the roots of a critical capital- odds with more orthodox analysis, his writing remains continu- ist agenda that helped to form some of the critical attributes of ally inspirational for film study. an ecological sensibility were firmly set as the authors would In addition, drawing on Bordwell and other film/literary the- suggest by an examination of Forbes’ listed films. orists, narrative is a key aspect that drives the methodological strategy in this article. Narrative has the power to position an audience in relationship to the story in opposing ways: either The Ecology of Film as objective, where audiences are positioned outside the action, Ecology, as argued by Brereton in HollywoodBuc has become a or subjective, where the viewer/reader can be drawn directly new, all-inclusive, yet often contradictory metanarrative, into the story from the position of one of the characters, adapt- clearly present within Hollywood film since the 1950s. Brere- ing their point of view (POV) in the narrative for example. ton focuses particularly on feel-good films whose therapeutic Especially within Hollywood’s classic narrative structure, character leads to their often being dismissed as ideologically which Bordwell champions, narrative remains a major factor regressive. By concentrating on narrative closure and in realisms attempts to deny contradiction. Fabula is a pattern especially the way space is used to foreground and dramatize that perceivers of narration create through assumptions and the sublime pleasure of nature, Hollywood cinema can be seen inferences. It is the developing result of picking up narrative to have within it a ‘‘certain tendency’’ that dramatizes core cues, applying schemata, and framing and testing hypothesis. ecological values and ideas. Tensions between the deep business model versus ecological/ As Bryan Norton puts it, environmentalism needs to educate utopian back story is what many of the readings in this article the public ‘‘to see problems from a synoptic, contextual are trying to grapple with and exploring how these are realized perspective’’ (1991, xi). In this respect, Hollywood films can in specific business films. The term Syuzhet refers to the actual be seen as exemplifying, and often actually promoting, this arrangement and presentation of fabula in film. Independent of loosely educational and ethical agenda, particularly through the the medium, the same patterns can be used in novels, plays, and use of ecological/mythic expression, evidenced in a range of films (see Bordwell 1985, 49). Such core textual analysis stra- narrative closures. tegies underpin the readings and very elliptical summaries of In his dictionary of ‘‘green’’ terms, John Button defines business films which follow. ecology and the growth of ecopolitics as: Furthermore, a related part of this article considers what can be fruitfully brought to bear on macromarketing and the chal- a set of beliefs and a concomitant lifestyle that stress the impor- lenge of ecological sustainability by a close reading of a num- tance of respect for the earth and all its inhabitants, using only ber of film narratives. Various erstwhile respected professions what resources are necessary and appropriate, acknowledging have been getting a hammering over the past while—most the rights of all forms of life and recognizing that all that exists recently the Bankers (rightly blamed if not also conveniently is part of one interconnected whole (Button 1988, 190). scapegoated as the main cause of the current crisis) alongside lawyers with their greedy profiles. In this journal, Dixon This definition seems at first sight totally at odds with the tra- (2001, 146) argues that Veblen’s ([1899] 1931, 102) definition jectory of a business/capitalist agenda, nonetheless this para- of conspicuous consumption as ‘‘expenditure in excess of what doxical connection, drawing on a highly capitalist-driven is required for physical comfort’’ seems identical to Baxter’s structuration of the film industry for instance has often, in spite concept of ‘‘wastefulness or prodigality.’’ This connects well of itself, helped to promote a fraught/productive debate on the to the ‘‘antibusiness’’ storylines of the top ten Hollywood films central importance of the ecological agenda as opposed to the within a broadly ecological agenda, mainly drawing on an ideo- business/marketing model. In the current global financial cri- logical critique of wasteful capitalism and consumer greed as sis, alongside escalating fears around global warming (which opposed to the need to promote a more harmonious, ecological, will affect our children’s children if we do not act now), the and communal-based politics and organizational structure of stakes have never been higher. How mediated representations society, which can instil harmonies and economies of scale that of such polar tensions are played out in mass mediated films promote sustainable development. remain a starting point for this article. Hence, the authors have The authors deliberately choose to analyzee top rated ‘‘busi- chosen the Forbes’ top ten business films to assess how these ness’’ films that broadly anthropocentrize nature as simply a classics have dealt with and framed an ecological preoccupa- resource for humans, as opposed to ‘‘antibusiness’’ films, many tion, while at the same time emanating from discourses within of which foreground ecological biocentrism and harmony with a business agenda. nature. This choice reflects the reality of how top business The central tenet of ecology as affirmed by many of the movies represent the market. Portrayals in more contemporary major ecological critics embodies ‘‘harmony with nature’’ films of late have begun to frame a ‘‘business agenda’’ along- together with the recognition of ‘‘finite resources,’’ which of side an ecological one as contradictory discourses, which in course appears totally at odds with consumer capitalism and the turn makes good drama. However, the authors submit that films continuing desire to produce and consume even more, to drive made before the late 1950s were not overtly cognizant of a the capitalist economy. However, as Andre Gorz warns in Ecol- green agenda, as such explicit rationale was not yet developed ogy as Politics, environmentalism is continually being

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‘‘commandeered’’ by the dominant groups in Western society Table 3. The Politics of Industrialism Versus The Politics of Ecology for their own ends. The forces of capitalism are very capable The Politics of Industrialism The Politics of Ecology of adapting an ‘‘environmental conscience’’ to meet the needs of the dominant culture (Gorz 1987, 114-30). A deterministic view of the future Flexibility and personal Such contradictions and ambiguities must be faced up to if Aggressive individualism Cooperative/ business is to avoid claims of lip service or worse ‘‘greenwash- communitarian ing’’ in the move toward an engagement with ecological sus- Materialism Move toward the spiritual tainability. The evidence so far in this journal (see Nason Divisive/reductive Holistic synthesis 2008 on global compact) would suggest the business ‘‘buy Anthropocentrism Biocentrism in’’ to ecological sustainability remains unconvincing. Rationality Intuition and Together with the visual aesthetic, the protagonists in the understanding films discussed will also be shown to embody an alternative Outer-directed motivation Inner directed critique using various forms of ecological agency. This phe- motivation nomenon has been highlighted through the evolution within Patriarchal values Postpatriarchal, feminist mainstream Hollywood cinema and what can be typified as a Institutionalized violence Nonviolence white, liberal-humanist, middle-class, ecological agenda, Economic growth and Gross Sustainable and quality across a range of genres whose filmic agency in turn serves National Product (GNP) to reflect mainstream attitudes, values, and beliefs embedded Production for exchange Production for use within the ecology movement generally. This positive High-income differentials Low-income trajectory is at odds, however, with the influential criticism differentials of Christopher Lasch who notices a similar ‘‘hunger for a Free market economy Local production Ever expanding trade Self-reliance therapeutic sensibility,’’ but dismisses the impulse for its Demand stimulation Voluntary simplicity complicity with the normlessness of ‘‘narcissistic American Employment as a means to an end Work as an end in itself culture’’ (Lasch 1978, 7), rather than embodying real systemic Capital-intensive production Labor-intensive change. Of late however with a new ‘‘Green’’ American production President and an apparent acceptance of ecological values and Technological fix Discriminating problems, particularly global warming, it would appear there is technology a stronger appetite for mediating narratives that support this Centralized economies of scale Decentralized human scale ecological agenda. Hierarchical structure Nonhierarchical Nevertheless, there remains what can loosely be categorized Dependence on experts Participative as light versus dark ecology, following Jonathan Porritt’s involvement simplified structuralist binary opposition model, which exposes Representative democracy Direct democracy the ‘‘regressive’’ aspects of industrialism as opposed to the Emphasis on law and order Libertarianism ‘‘progressive’’ attributes of ecology. This distinction summar- Sovereignty of nation state Internationalism and ized in table 3 can be recognized throughout this study and used global Domination over nature Harmony with nature to illustrate primary nature/culture conflicts from an ecological Environmentalism Ecology perspective. Environment managed as resource Resource—finite Incidentally, ecofeminist discourse (explored by McDonagh Nuclear power Renewable sources of and Prothero 1997b) usually provides a well-defined and tangi- energy ble trajectory and scaffold for an ecological reading of Holly- High energy/high consumption Low energy/low wood film, yet surprisingly none of the top ten Hollywood consumption films are explicitly driven by a feminist agenda. Source: Porritt (1984, 216-17). Rather than the stylistic focus within Hollywood utopia,a cursory reading of Forbes’ top ten business films will concen- trate on their representation of underlying themes. In particular, to coalesce new marketing and filmic appreciations of such these readings will begin to tease out their ideological endorse- imaginary narratives over the last century. ment/critique of various ‘‘excesses’’ within the individualized and competitive-driven capitalist system and the need to affirm communal/ecological value systems. More radical film analy- Forbes’ Top Ten Business Movies sis seeks to read ‘‘against the grain’’ alternative interpretations, No 1. Citizen Kane—Pre-WW2 American zeitgeist. The which promote a ‘‘holistic’’ and ‘‘ecological’’ as opposed to a all-time favorite for film critics across the world, this bravura ‘‘consumer’’ and ‘‘waste-driven’’ binary schema, as outlined in cinematic tale by the wunderkind of Hollywood, Orson Welles, Porritt’s model. In the overview of the top ten that follows, the tells the story of William Randolph Hearst, the media mogul authors pick out some of the salient ‘‘ecological’’ themes that who put together an empire of newspapers, radio stations, underpin these ‘‘business’’ films. Following this review, the magazines, and news services and then built himself the flam- authors draw some concluding observations that might help boyant monument of San Simeon. As Roger Ebert affirms in

138 Downloaded from jmk.sagepub.com at UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA on June 17, 2016 McDonagh and Brereton 139 his review in the Chicago Sun-Times from May 24, 1998, major axes of difference. Ecocentric or biocentric views vie Hearst was ‘‘Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates with naked anthropocentrism. Individualism clashes with rolled up into an enigma’’. He became obsessed with success collectivism (communitarianism). Culturally and historically– and ‘‘living the American Dream,’’ which affirms that anyone geographically embedded views (particularly those of indigen- can become successful, if they have the requisite tenacity, con- ous peoples) sit uneasily alongside universal claims and viction, and the entrepreneurial spirit. Such attributes appear a principles (often advanced by scientists). long way away from the communal and noncompetitive spirit Godfather—(1970s post-Watergate American zeitgeist) The of ecological sustainability. gangster genre is considered as the ‘‘great no to the American This early cautionary tale exposes the capitalist and heroic yes’’ and the polar opposite to the ‘‘heroic myth making of the dilemma embedded within American culture before world war Western’’ as also exemplified in Citizen Kane. Instead, we are 2, which seeks to valorise self-actualization, while at the same presented with the underbelly of modern urban America where time critiquing ‘‘soulless banking’’ and moneymaking. Being the dream of poor emigrants is corrupted by their struggle for endowed with enormous wealth while still a young boy, his survival and the ethical choices they make. However, also parents struck gold with some lucky investments, Charles resonant in this cautionary classic is a critique of ‘‘official’’ Foster Kane grows up trying to ‘‘find himself.’’ Finally, after capitalism that reflected this conflictual period when corrup- many aborted attendances at schools and world tours, he settles tion eroded the pillars of government and power politics in on running what he considers a failing newspaper, which has America. These family-based ‘‘business men,’’ coded as ‘‘high standards’’ and broadsheet audience appeal. Through gangsters with their highly suspect ethics, try to survive trial and error, he molds his media empire to appeal to his own through various nefarious business enterprises. They sink or ego and interests, while striving to secure general mass public swim depending on their cunning but push the boundaries of approval. Later, when informed by his banker that he is fritter- official business enterprise by their use of violent action to get ing away his wealth, Kane coyly responds that at this rate he their way. This vicarious extension of the ‘‘business ethic’’ has will take a lifetime to lose it all. Money and steady accumula- been shown to be appealing to erstwhile mild-mannered busi- tion of wealth loses its intrinsic value/worth when you have so ness types who are encouraged to succeed by whatever means, much wealth to start with. Some interpretations suggest that within the ‘‘survival of the fittest’’ paradigm. (See, for instance, surplus wealth becomes the root of all his problems and recent audience research by Jacobs into the pleasures of the remains an abiding preoccupation within the story, playing into United States’ Godfather narrative for a new generation of the old adage ‘‘money does not necessarily buy you happi- gangster fans, namely, The Sopranos [Jacobs 2005].) ness.’’ The stuffy world of banking and wealth creation is All the time, the family reigns supreme, acting as a bulwark shown to be a chimera. ‘‘True happiness’’ and romanticized against the ‘‘individual’’ chaos of violent individuals. The orig- self-individualization this fabula affirms only comes from the inal story and sequel deal with the transfer of power from father inside, far away from surface wealth and from within a bedrock to son and considers how a new generation has lost the ‘‘ethics of deep humanistic values. of care’’ and communal business acumen as they face survival This story exemplifies a mapping of business innocence into the future. In other words, naked greed takes over. Gang- before the ecological turn hailed in Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society ster iconography present and embody the extreme flip side of in the second half of the twentieth century. This innocence ‘‘raw American capitalism’’ and politics everywhere. While embodies a narrative trajectory where wealth creation brought polarized with even greater poignancy through Coppola’s crit- personal angst and personality challenges, while wider ecologi- ical reinterpretation of the gangster genre as revealing the deep cal questions around growth and sustainability are not social and business underbelly of American life. (See for addressed, perhaps because in this epoch, no one saw such eco- instance the useful documentaries on the five-disk complete logical questions as relevant. In this respect, nature is truly DVD box set and the extensive academic literature on this very present but simply as a economic resource. Nature is crudely important series.) The anointed son, Michael becomes a cold coded as lost innocence—symbolized by the nostalgic snow and ruthless man, obsessed with power and suffers the scene at the start of the boy’s story—when he is forced to give (Catholic) sin of pride. Similarly, with Godfather 2, which is up his family and rural idyll. This loss is specifically codified number four in the top ten list, it traces in more historical by the boy’s sleigh, whose name Rosebud becomes the narra- trajectories the rise of American capitalism and its contempo- tive enigma driving the story, being the last word spoken by the rary fault lines through the 1970s in particular. old man. This number one ranked business movie seems to be These various conflicts and tensions are articulated most truly anthropocentric where nature is conceived as an economic famously in the opening sequence of Coppola’s original mas- resource for business purposes especially, if we are to analyze terpiece and encapsulated by the ‘‘and what has America done the movie with the benefit of hindsight in 2009. The authors for me’’ speech. Such assertions by a disaffected immigrant echo the comments of (Harvey 2000, 214) in suggesting that for business man, who simply wants ‘‘justice’’ for his violated the business movie anthropocentric is de rigueur. daughter, cues the audience as Bordwell’s theory affirms and The environment and ecological movements are full of reflects an ongoing dramatic struggle around the ‘‘survival of competing and cacophonous claims as to the possible future the fittest’’ model of social development, together with the pri- of the human species on planet earth. Consider some of the macy of the dollar in determining and ensuring a robust

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American value system. Such measures of social and personal redemption comes from connecting with his core humanity and success, through human security and fulfillment, are most good nature and finding these values in his fellow human certainly conflicted by the universal and ever present ethic of beings. When one’s back is against the wall, the message of the citizenship, which also underpins a communitarian/ecological narrative preaches how all we can trust is ourselves and family/ social development. community, rather than the usual institutions of work and other The modus operandi of this gangster narrative essentially professional markers. Cutthroat business is characterized as a incorporate murder as the final sanction, alongside the more all false God, and this radical principle remains an abiding mes- pervasive code of silence, designed to protect those inside the sage cued by the story. No wonder such a classic text is shown family. As Chris Messenger argues, such family bonds appear again and again at Christmas time, especially as it preaches a to ‘‘inoculate mob murders against any moral constraint’’ message of humanity and deep ecological/biocentric sensibility (Messenger 2002, 11). The Sopranos is certainly the best con- with all sentient human beings, which in times of recession and temporary inheritance of The Godfather’s mafia conventions business failure become more appealing to many, and this and business strategies, with the Corleone’s finally welcomed, theme is again echoed in the subsequent and more contempo- at long last into middle-class homes, within this long running rary business media movie. This is interestingly done with contemporary HBO TV series. While the movie entertains the ‘‘soft capitalism’’ presented as being better than ‘‘hard’’ audience (following Holbrook’s work) whose fascination with capitalism but still the only choice available. a code ridden secretive part of society is satiated, its violence to Network (no. five in the rankings)—Peter Finch received a humanity and ecology (the repository for many a dark deed’s posthumous Oscar for his marvellous performance as Howard corpse) is again notably anthropocentric. Human agency Beale, a TV presenter who famously shouts ‘‘I’m mad as hell.’’ always takes precedence as against any consideration of Nobody can stop him as he rails against the corrupt and fickle nature/environment or ecological balance. This cold, clinical commercial system of employment in the media industry, worldview is a long way from the warm, uplifting film from the which disposes of staff at a whim, all the while depending on 1940s, which is next on the list. In addition, we note the fashion and ratings. In the media industry, maybe less notice- gangster code of ‘‘omerta`’’ mirrors the anti-whistleblower ably than in other industries, the star persona is totally defined internal logic of the corporation; if change comes it is only by their ratings. Incidentally, within the film industry literature when ‘‘sanctioned’’ by the highest echelons of the corporate there remains a strong critique of the star system and the esca- structure and cannot be seen to come from the underlings or lating costs of securing A-list actors. As a star’s price per film outside (see also The Insider). increases, it makes it more and more difficult to secure a return It’s a Wonderful Life (no. three in the rankings)—A classic on investment, resulting in more ‘‘safer filmic projects,’’ since feel-good movie from the 1940s, with so much written about it unnecessary creative risk does not play well in the marketplace. from various angles. Again, its narrative structure and fabula At the movie’s end, the anchorman is obviously totally deals with ‘‘humanistic values’’ versus material business ones, insane and is being exploited by blindly ambitious program- as a family man reaches a crises point in trying to cope with the mers on one hand and corrupt businessmen on the other—with possibility of bankruptcy—the ultimate sanction within a multinational corporations the only true contemporary capitalist-driven world. Frank Capra produces his classic government. See Roger Ebert’s review in Chicago’s Sun- ‘‘Capraesque’’ form of sentimentality that was so appealing Times—Ebert is the most visible/popular critic on the Web and to mass audiences then, who secretly or otherwise desire to in Internet Movie Database (IMDB) in particular and is used ‘‘soften’’ hard capitalist edicts, where every man has a price consistently within this article. Such a cautionary tale drama- that can be measured in monetary terms. Capra shows how tizes the corruption of commercial media organizations that are he can fashion what is often considered simply ‘‘would-be only driven by the ‘‘bottom line.’’ However, this strategy does homilizing hokum’’ into mass entertainment for all. As this not promote quality much less longevity within the output of troubled ‘‘everyman’’ reaches rock bottom—especially having the organization, which of course remains a more sustaining to deal with a Scrooge-like banker, Lionel Barrymore, reminis- organic business strategy, often ignored in the race for short- cent of a later incarnation of the role in Citizen Kane—he has to term gain. This paradox remains applicable to capitalism and dig deep to find resilience, aided of course by a deep form of commercialism in general, as allegorically inferred within the communal solidarity (usually associated with left wing/socialist story line, which becomes most strongly exposed in the overtly values) and thereby rediscover foundational ethical values, anti-big corporation narrative, The Insider (no. six in the which can loosely be ascribed for the purposes of this article rankings), which could only be made at the end of the last as holistic and ‘‘ecological.’’ These include hanging on to local century. values to frame a reconstituted business value system rather The Insider—From a David Mamet script and directed with than selfishly striving to be always global in approach and to great style by Michael Mann, this story focuses on a whistle- be better than the rest, as core foundational values and princi- blower to the tobacco industry and how health warnings were ples. Such values were used to underpin the ‘‘socialist leaning’’ ignored. The film dramatizes what big corporate business can new deal by helping the poor and the dispossessed, rather do to an individual who dares to fight against corrupt practices. than simply reaffirming inequality and endorsing ‘‘the survival The narrative foregrounds the implacable arrogance and ulti- of the fittest’’ mentality. George Bailey’s (James Stewart) mate vulnerability of corporate America, which according to

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Todd McCarthy in his review in Variety from October 4, 1999, which again echoes the storyline of The Insider among others. ‘‘can only be respected for fearless determination with which it One wonders now with the recent world crash how such a chi- pulls the curtain back on the shameless chicanery of giant mera of electronic moneymaking and downright gambling has profit- and image-minded companies.’’ The story of the become even more relevant, following the collapse of big bank- unheroic scientific researcher who exposes the tobacco compa- ing institutions in America and elsewhere. Roger Ebert again nies’ official lies about the unhealthy nature of its product, begins his review in Sun-Times from December 11, 1987, leading to legal decisions that, for the first time, began going ‘‘How much is enough? The kid keeps asking the millionaire against firms in the ‘‘nicotine delivery business’’ was, by all raider and trader. How much money do you want? The trader accounts, a fairly unlikely narrative for an expensive studio fea- seems to be thinking hard, but the answer is, he just does not ture and admired for this alone. Reminiscent of so many classic know. He is not even sure how to think about the question. Hollywood films like It’s a Wonderful Life, around the ‘‘small He spends all day trying to make as much money as he possibly man’’ fighting corporate injustice, the film also deals with a can, and he cheerfully bends and breaks the law to make even crisis in journalist ethics as a ‘‘fourth estate’’ as well as more millions ... money is just a way to keep the score.’’ The business enterprise while dealing with corporate malpractice. millionaire is a predator, a corporate raider, a Wall Street shark, This stylish modern thriller also reflects a modernist feeling called Gordon Gekko—recalling the lizard that feeds off of alienation and growing ambiguous attitudes to work and per- insects and sheds its tail when trapped. A long way away from sonal identity, which has become the hallmark of recent the benevolent capitalist-driven agents of previous classics dis- conspiracy-based business storylines. Furthermore, the story cussed in this article and again such a trope metaphorically adds various new contemporary twists to such a narrative arc recalls various ecological narratives around human survival. and is perhaps a precursor to those prepared to engage other Stone’s radical critique of the capitalist trading mentality (ecological-oriented) causes linked to corporate injustice. suggests that most investors are dupes and that big market kill- While it seems permissible to question big business in cultu- ings are made primarily by men like Gekko, who swoops in and rally problematic areas such as the ‘‘business of tobacco’’ many snaps whole companies out from under the noses of their stock- business sectors remain untouched due to the perceived socio- holders. One might predict the current global recession will economic ‘‘good’’ associated with them. An ecological reading produce an even more Manichean version of such bankers, to of business activity would not restrict the criticism in this scapegoat and reflect the deep seated distrust by the general regard. Meanwhile, the next film in the list at the outset appears populace around the truly awful state of affairs such rampant somewhat old-fashioned and remains framed by its theatrical unregulated financial enterprise has left the world in the state roots. its now in. In any case, the business system appears unable to GlenGarry GlenRoss (ranked no. 7 by Forbes)—Set in a sustain itself above a more closely circulated and globalized/ shabby real estate office, the workers make calls to try and sell mediated world economy. their product but nobody is interested and consequently no fees Especially in light of the current global downturn, revisio- are earned. This lack of productive output of course does not nist readings and interpretation of Wall Street would be out tally with the business bottom line. Consequently, bosses try of synch with Roger Ebert’s perceptive review that explains to instil an even more aggressive competitive spirit by getting how the financial wheeling and dealing seem complicated and the workers to act more virulently among themselves, with the convincing, and yet always appear to make since, while loser facing the prospect of no job at the end of the game. As ‘‘Gekko’s lawbreaking would of course be opposed by most Roger Ebert affirms, their theatrical struggle takes on a ‘‘kind people on Wall Street, his larger value system would be of nobility’’ and certainly updates the classic Death of a applauded’’. The ethos of big business has become the major Salesman, where Arthur Miller made the lone salesman Willy question also in our current crisis and more holistic ecological Loman into a symbol for the failure of the American dream. In models of doing business, which are often simply alluded to by this film, the salesmen are no longer self-employed, going from the foregrounding of destructive business fabula, point to a door-to-door, but working in teams, as is the contemporary very different and benevolent model in which to strive for. Are norm, while competing against each other for their very the excesses and cautionary tales of such dystopic business case survival. Hence, the paradoxical illusion of communal produc- studies, signalling this need for more sustainable and ecologi- tivity—a core ecological value—is perversely reconstituted to cally based new strategies for business management? Audience instil even more aggressive behavior, which of course remains research would be required of course to test such a hypothesis. counterproductive in maintaining deep and sustainable human So, Wall Street is about injustice and can often be cross-linked synergies. This seems to be a clear illustration of the divide and to ecological injustice—especially between the globalized first conquer social politics of capitalism. The next on the list is a world versus third world. One always needs to link issues of film that echoes the rise of a contemporary virulent strand of justice with global eco-issues that affect us all. Such business American capitalism as encapsulated by New York’s money films can be read and interpreted as a microcosm of an eco- market. agenda, not just as ‘‘promotion’’ or ‘‘critique’’ of an outworn Wall Street (no. eight in the rankings)—Again an overtly mass production, business consumption paradigm. It will be business-focused narrative that involves a critique of hard Wall fascinating to see how Oliver Stone handles the remake ‘‘Wall Street traders and their abuse of human values in the 1980s, Street 2: Money Never Sleeps,’’ which will unfold against the

Downloaded from jmk.sagepub.com at UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA on June 17, 2016 141 142 Journal of Macromarketing 30(2) background of the recent economic meltdown in which a young our analysis is that the greatest business movies are no doubt Wall Street trader confronts the rampant greed and corruption entertaining (see also Holbrook 2000), hence, their popularity that led to the meltdown (Earth Times 2009). and ratings, but they also are very representative of the DSP Next on the list at number 9 is Tin Men—Like Levinson’s and its predilection with materialism (Kilbourne et al. 2009) stylish Diner (1982), this movie is about grown-up teenagers and our claim that what can be extrapolated from these various who are still mystified by what they were interested in as narratives is broadly Screening not Greening, of business kids—most noticeably their commodified Cadillacs, which values and tropes. Following Benjamin’s notion of ‘‘phantas- they park outside, while still hanging out together. Now much magoria’’ (originally an eighteenth-century illusionistic optical older they talk about the people they have defrauded in their apparatus, involving shadows of moving pictures projected salesman job, like in GlenGarry GlenRoss, selling aluminium past an audience onto a wall or screen Benjamin et al. [2008, siding or tin. Again, this movie echoes conspicuous consump- 11]) it should be asked must big business de facto be in tion associated with consumer society itself already linked to opposition to holistic ecological models? For example, con- ecological myopia as discussed by Kilbourne, McDonagh, and sider an analogy of science fiction narratives where dystopian Prothero (1997), as already mentioned in discussions around preoccupation with results of environmental (political/nature) the other movies. While the last in the list remains resonant for disintegration can, at the same time be argued as foregrounding audiences across generations yet remains specifically framed and signaling its opposite—namely, the need for a more by the early rise of mass production in the 1930s. holistic utopian vision (see the reading of closure of Blade Modern Times (listed at no. 10 in Forbes rankings)—A Runner et al. [in Brereton 2005]). Likewise, the rampant timeless classic from Charles Chaplin, which concerns a fable consumption-driven/business films can signal their opposite about automation, assembly lines, and the enslaving of men by ‘‘holistic ecological/communal engagement.’’ machines, among other things. The comic film encapsulates Does it matter why a green narrative in a business movie is some of the most enduring and critical images of the industrial only conceptualized and screened as an economic resource? age, as Chaplin firmly positions himself on the side of class Are we expecting too much from our ‘‘entertainment’’ driven struggle against industrial and corporate oppression. As mass media? Yes and yes, ecologically speaking! If business Ackman (2002, 1) himself comments in Forbes of Wall Street and markets are systemically interested in helping achieve eco- and Modern Times: logical sustainability, the answer should be they aught to both screen green agendas and endorse them at the same time. As Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (no. eight) and Charlie Chaplin’s Kates (2000, 284) remarks, ‘‘In short, not only does film theory Modern Times (number 10) complete the list. Both movies attempt to understand film, but, as a politically informed mode helped define their eras. Chaplin’s 1936 film captures our fran- of praxis, it attempts to change it as well.’’ Nason’s (2008) tic effort to keep up with the assembly line—and to stay ahead assessment suggests there is still a way to go and if we want of work in general. Stone’s 1987 release portrays Chaplin’s to depict business as a means to avert an increasing ‘‘tragedy direct descendant, telling the story of Wall Street in the roaring of the commons’’ (Shultz and Holbrook 1999) then we need 1980s and the efforts of one would-be titan’s efforts to keep up to show it on the big screen. with the Joneses at a very high level. We could in this era of ecological concern be witnessing the five E’s of a business movie with the fifth being ecology to add These broad sketches of the top ten business films across a wide to Holbrook’s (2000) categories of experience, entertainment, historical period all coalesce around questioning of established exhibitionism, and evangelizing as consumer texts of our times. business practices while most remain locked within a dominant However, this is yet to be brought to our local movie theaters in anthropomorphic conception of ecology as expressed through the business movie genre. One can say this insofar as business lens of business practice. To further interrogate these films with communicates shared values and aspirations for society; busi- their underlying narrative structures and affirm alternative ness and markets are mechanisms to help us fulfill our dreams; ecologically based agendas, the authors continue with a so if people are to dream of a ‘‘green future,’’ we very much broad-based discussion. need to see it played out for us on the big screen through crea- tive ‘‘green imaginaries’’ detail of which is beyond the scope of this article. Such a business movie would also permit society to Discussion acknowledge roles that business and markets perform and per- To summarize and begin to conclude, if we accept that the mar- haps rekindle perceptions of these roles as truly positive for ket is the agora, its visualization is the moving picture and society and ecology. Unlike when green issues for management when Mittelstaedt, Kilbourne, and Mittelstaedt (2006, 136) and marketing were easily challenged (see McDonagh and asks ‘‘How do we best measure consequences of marketing sys- Prothero 1997a, 1997b), we caution against generating green tems, whether intended or unintended?’’ the authors submit the business propaganda movies. The present green challenge is moving picture’s representation of business is an apposite start- doubly augmented by the need to further problematize the ing point. Macromarketing scholarship, given its tradition can ‘‘gray’’ and ‘‘urban’’ ecologies that Virilio (2008) sees layered benefit from the confluence of film theory, visual methods, and over the ‘‘green,’’ due to the eruption of the ‘‘world city,’’ the ecological perspectives suggested here. What emerges from totally dependent on telecommunications and the need to

142 Downloaded from jmk.sagepub.com at UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA on June 17, 2016 McDonagh and Brereton 143 grapple with the fact that time is in fact matter. Virilio when Dholokia (2006, 57) argued ‘‘[T]he visual logic of the screen interviewed (see Der Derian 1998, 21) summarized in the is critical in bringing the market to life’’, so too the authors phrase ‘‘If I were to give a last image, interactivity is to real submitisthecasewiththebigscreenwithperhapsless space what radioactivity is to the atmosphere.’’ This a revolu- interactivity. tionary idea but as of today there is no real evidence of it being Scott MacDonald (2004) in a ISLE article entitled ‘‘Towards problematized in the business movie genre let alone it being an Eco-Cinema’’ argued the job of promoting an ecological hailed as top ranking work by Forbes or anyone in this journal. sensibility involves a ‘‘retraining of perception,’’ as a ‘‘way This reading of business movies is markedly different to of offering an alternative to conventional media-spectator- work examined in other movie genres. Mayumi et al. (2005, ship,’’ or a way of providing something ‘‘like a garden—an 6), already mentioned, strike a chord with us by contradistinc- ‘‘Edenic’’ respite from conventional consumerism—which the tion depicting what has happened in animation movies, where machine of modern life, as modern life is embodied by the the works of Miyazaki such as Nausicaa of the valley of the apparatus of media’’ (cited in Ivakhiv 2008, 109 (15)) Is this wind (1984), My neighbor Totoro (1988) Princess Mononoke not what we need? (1997), Spirited Away (2001), and Story of Yanagawa Horiwari What movies are still to come? For sure, there is scope in the (2003) remind us there is something missing within our attitude top ten movies to see a director discuss the business role in a toward nature, namely courtesy toward water, mountains, and carbon-free future and how this might come about as a desir- air in addition to living things. For example, in Spirited Away able end goal. The challenge perhaps is making this hip or cool (2001), ‘‘[Miyazaki] creates mysterious connections between (see Franks 1997) and to further anticipate work such as Paul remediation and the politics of environmental problems, Virilio’s, which adopt a more critical theoretical position with over-consumption, and sense of place. The characters’ regard to the various parallels that exist between war, cinema, abstracted identities allow Miyazaki to craft a story that can and the logistics of perception. Virilio’s works such as Open give substance to discussions that relate the process of personal Sky challenge us to acknowledge the dynamism of the growth of little Chihiro and her ability to solve environmental eco-challenge and reconsider the ecological negatives of the problems as well as those of political organizations inherent in widespread proliferation of technology in our society. Further- a democracy. ... In the film, we are confronted with madden- more, recent movies have highlighted the macro implications ing overconsumption that threatens a mystical community. of the diamond trade, like Blood Diamond (2006) and the con- Spirited Away can help us locate our feelings and identify with sequences for poverty and war in Africa. Critical commentators Chihiro while being conscious of how the psychology of capi- like Thomas Pogge and Naomi Klein have in turn questioned talist consumption patters complicates efforts of collective how the West and its ‘‘advanced’’ forms of business capitalism, problem solving. The associations in the film are loose but they can expect the extremely disadvantaged third world give up the provide for an almost magical encounter with real feelings and possibilities of gaining some of the luxuries and benefits, which problems that society faces.’’ the rich industrialized world enjoys, irrespective of the overall The authors submit that it is worth further researching what ecological cost to planet earth (Brereton 2009, 57). There conditions there would need to be for a top ten business movie continues to be numerous Western narratives in the style of to do likewise and have a truly green narrative; is it really too Silkwood (1983) and some of the top ten business movies early to state that the movies of the future which will be top ten explored in this article, which continue to characterize big busi- rated will de facto have a core ecological theme? We have ness in a villainous role and in need of change that is certainly enough directors and movie producers that have tried in differ- necessary within the West as well as in the stereotypical corrupt ent genres to press home the green case; planet preservation, third world business milieu. What place then for a green- futuristic species lifestyle, postecological meltdown but they business movie that envisions a brave new ecology? do not factor in the greatest business movies ever. Ostensibly, One can conjecture on the composition of Forbes’ top ten genres like science fiction and road movies most frequently and surmise that for many the market and business is perpe- embody deep ecological agendas (Brereton 2005), while those tually depicted as complicit in the problem, not part of the solu- which foreground business and contemporary entrepreneurial tion (cf. Kilbourne, McDonagh, and Prothero 1997; McDonagh agency often appear to promote antithetical values to more 1998; Kilbourne 2004). Indeed, macromarketing scholarship utopian green ones. However, to engender a green commodity itself has faced this challenge for marketing within the acad- form, this pattern needs to change to create effective green emy for years so we should be in a position to help argue for imaginaries that foreground more sustainable marketing possi- the conditions required for the change needed on the big screen, bilities with which audiences can connect. Currently, in Ire- especially when we envision a future for our field (Fisk 2006). land the panacea of a green-based economy is being touted It may well be that we need a business movie that encapsulates to help pull the country out of its deep recession. What our what Ozanne, Corus, and Saatcioglu (2009) describe as delib- analysis does say is that business (and by implication market- erative democracy where business can correct misperceptions ing) has not stated its case or bona fides in being ‘‘green’’ on of its role as purely self-interested in favor of one where it con- the big screen. This does not surprise us (see Brereton 2001; tributes to ecological sustainability. McDonagh 1998). When considering the impact of the So, a macromarketing challenge for business movies would computer screen on visions of the stock market, Zwick and be to screen the green dream—create narrative structures and

Downloaded from jmk.sagepub.com at UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA on June 17, 2016 143 144 Journal of Macromarketing 30(2) fabula that show people how business can make it happen and business and the market is depicted on the big screen per- choreograph the green business walk. Is this Miyazaki’s curtain haps the time for business green change is now (McDonagh call? This would not be easy, for it presupposes a desire for a 2009). We should aim for greening, not just screening! Such sea change for business in society and it has already been docu- change in itself is complex as the problem and its conse- mented that business and the market are adept at incorporating quences are dynamic—for example, the speed of technologi- critiques of the market into glitzy visual referents for new pub- cal advances in marketing, information communications, and licity and advertising as a way of ‘‘hailing’’ required change but society are not always made in an ecologically benign man- making sure that it remains at the periphery (see also Desmond, ner. If green is a new way forward for business perhaps we McDonagh, and O’Donohoe 2000). Some think corporate need to ruminate further to unpack Virilio’s concerns over social responsibility is a good case in point of this (Dunne the ‘‘Speed of Light’’ and thus envision a new technicolor 2008). Will green change ever reach the center of top business for the big screen to show us the way. movies? This is a huge question, perhaps there will be a good corporate citizen epic soon to be screened at a multiplex near you with a truly green narrative. This would be great to witness Appendix for a number of reasons not least it would empower a macro- Key theories and concepts used in ‘‘textual marketing analysis of world problems and raise the profile of the scholarship of this field. However, it remains a very deba- analysis’’ of film include the following: table outcome, due to vested interests, lobbying, deal making, Address—(how does a film/media product address its corruption, a desire to be entertained—all of which have to be audience) as in ‘‘mode of address’’ adapted by a news surmounted in order that pleasurable cinema will sell us the program—that is, how does the style, assumptions, eco-spectacle as delivered by big business. Firat and Dholakia approach of the program construct a relationship to its (1998) argue in their text ‘‘Consuming People’’ that the social content, and between its context and audience? construction of modernity reflects a desire to control or master Semiotics—encoding/decoding used in communications the earth through science and technology. It would seem big studies; for example, words are encoded onto a newspa- business has succeeded in doing just this and Forbes’ choice, per (or any text) and subsequently decoded by its readers. of the top business movies, illustrates how this process has This is also true of audio/visual imagery. played out thus far. What remains is to depict how business can Mystification/demystification—process of obscuring or assist in the future construction of meaningful ecological effacing the marks of production (i.e., film tends to hide experiences for people. the fact that it is manufactured and produced. The latter is When there is talk of the market as agora (Mittelstaedt, a key concept in media studies, which serves to reveal Kilbourne, and Mittelstaedt 2006) it also requires us to think practices or processes that are normally hidden. visually about how this agora has been screened to us over the Diegesis—the whole realist–fictive world a film represents years and therein question the ecological efficacy of our buy- and how it is disrupted if something ‘‘abnormal’’ appears ing into the movies. Incidentally, many key attributes helping on camera. For instance, diegetic sound in a film occurs to promote American capitalism can be extracted from the when we actually see how the sound is made and where it rhetoric of the new President Obama, in calling on his people is coming from. to revive the status of the country in the current global eco- Intertextual—when we read words or pictures, some of the nomic recession. In his inauguration, Obama championed meanings we produce in relation to one particular text are change: determined partly by the meanings of other texts to which it appears similar. For instance, when we see a star in a Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for film, we also read their performance taking into account good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is their back catalogue of films in which they starred along- unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watch- ful eye, the market can spin out of control—and that a nation side their public persona and media image. Such illusive cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The perceptions inform an audiences intertextual relationship success of our economy has always depended not just on the with the film. size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our pros- Myth—used to describe a mode of representation that makes perity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing its objects seem natural—for example, religion, politics, heart—not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our and ways of living generally. This can be embodied in common good (quote from Barack Obama’s inauguration characters: for example, Odysseus, Adam & Eve, Jesus, speech [January 20, 2009]). Lancelot, Romeo & Juliet, Robin Hood, Shylock, Scrooge, Superman, and even Rambo. As my colleague As Obama’s presidency started, it promised change was Helena Sheehan asserts, ‘‘All true art strives towards coming, but as the above quote illustrates its initial focus myth’’ (Irish Television Drama, 27). is on the common good; more recently he has also broached Polysemic—capable of multiple readings. For example, differ- the topic of global climate change. While it is too early to ent classes or gender groups can read the same text differ- say whether it necessarily is going to alter the way big ently. This concept is very important for audience analysis.

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Cen- agement’’now published with Thomson Learning and in his work argues tre for Consumption Studies Spring Seminar Series. Leicester: Uni- that marketing should take a proactive role in enabling the process of sus- versity of Leicester Management Centre. tainable communication. He has published a number of articles primarily McDonagh, P., and A. Prothero, eds. 1997a. Green management: A on marketing’s interconnections with nature but is also interested in the- reader. London: International Thomson Business Press. ories of food, music, and sport within consumer society. He holds a PhD ———. 1997b. Leap frog marketing: The contribution of ecofeminist from Cardiff University and has held lecturing posts at Queen’s Univer- thought to the world of patriarchal marketing. Marketing Intelli- sity Belfast, Cardiff University, Stirling University, Sheffield University, gence and Planning 15:361-8. DIT and spent a sabbatical at Arizona State University in 2002. MacDonald, S. 2004. Toward an eco-cinema. Interdisciplinary Stud- ies in Literature and Environment 11:107-32. Dr. Pat Brereton is the acting dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Mayumi, K., B. D. Solomon, and J. Chang. 2005. The ecological and Social Science at Dublin City University in Ireland. His books include consumption themes of the films of Hayao Miyazaki. Ecological ‘‘Hollywood Utopia: Ecology in Contemporary American Cinema’’ Economics 54:1-7. (2005); ‘‘Continuum Guide to Media Education’’ (2001) and he has writ- Messenger, C. 2002. The Godfather and American culture: How the ten extensively on Irish film. He recently edited a special issue of ‘‘Con- Corleones became our gang. New York: SUNY State University, vergence: The journal of new media on DVD add-ons.’’ He is committed New York Press. to a broad range of interdisciplinary study and research and has published Mittelstaedt, J. D., W. E. Kilbourne, and R. A. Mittelstaedt. 2006. numerous ecological articles and essays. He holds a PhD from the Macromarketing as agorology: Macromarketing theory and the University of Bedfordshire and has held teaching posts at Northampton study of the agora. Journal of Macromarketing 26:131-42. College, University of Loton (Bedfordshire) among other industry posi- Nason, R. W. 2008. Structuring the global marketplace: The impact of the tions. He is a specialist in enquiring on the future of marketing, on social United Nations global impact. Journal of Macromarketing 28:418-25. marketing, on human interaction in commercial situations, and on sys- Neale, S., and M. Smith, eds. 1998. Contemporary Hollywood cinema. tems of managed communication. His scholarly project is focused on London: Continuum Press. ‘‘marketing for sustainable prosperous society.’’ Downloaded from jmk.sagepub.com at UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA on June 17, 2016