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An Ecological Reading of the Greatest Business Movies

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An Ecological Reading of the Greatest Business Movies 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.
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