The production and control of pathological atmospheres:

Recalling Gordon Blaine Hancock

Abstract

Marketing and advertising professionals have promoted a culture of consumption that makes strong claims about its links to happiness (Markin and Narayana 1976). Yet, the end result is not always satisfaction (Monieson 1975). It can be dissatisfaction (Kilbourne 1999) and unhappiness (Torres 2020). Among early critical interrogators of marketing, one stands out for highlighting the role of the advertising industry in the creation of pathological atmospheres and distorted subject relations, namely, Gordon Blaine Hancock. Hancock was an African American critic of advertising. In this paper, we outline Hancock's biography, the cultural milieu he navigated, the criticisms of advertising in circulation, and Hancock's contribution to these debates. Attention is devoted to unpacking the assumptions threading across the literature, including how practitioners were curating and scholars were theorizing atmospheres as macro, meso- and micro-level phenomena which orient the consumer within their lifeworld.