THE NAKED CONSUMER

Here, former Wall Street Journal reporter Larson, incensed and victimized, exposes the network of consumer espionage that places ordinary citizens at risk of losing their constitutional right to privacy by merely purchasing something—even this book—or by refusing to purchase what researchers, from their lists and profiles, believe they should. Using the census, a variety of public records such aa birth or real-estate notices, hidden cameras, and live observers ("spymasters"), market researchers can and do uncover intimate details about the lives of consumers (their eating habits, sexual preferences, personal hygiene) for the purpose of shaping the way products are marketed and to whom—but rarely to improve goods and services. Larson traces how subtle, sophisticated, and easily abused this information-gathering is, highlighted by the psychologists and archaeologists, employed by advertising agencies, who sift through household trash, and by the anthropologists whose study of masculinity concluded that modern men require a new set of symbols to rescue them from their sexual confusion—a set of symbols to be provided by an advertising campaign. An insightful historical survey of marketing techniques from "mass" marketing to "target" marketing-used to identify specific segments of the market and to manipulate their behavior—shows the evolution of consumer espionage aa a "science," complete with its own jargon (e.g., "post decision dissonance," which means realizing you have bought a lousy car). Personal, indignant, clever: Larson offers strong ammunition against an enemy so insidious that most people don't even know it's there.