Noam Chomsky and Douglas Rushkoff are two of my favorite people.

Douglas Rushkoff directed a Frontline called The Merchants of Cool that describes how the marketers are recycling our culture in order to sell it back to us in an endless loop of regurgitation and cannibalism.

Tonight, he explores how as we get more sophisticated, so do they. Our lives are increasingly defined market research, and politicians are beginning to learn how to play too.

The Persuaders on Frontline November 9, 2004 at 9pm

FRONTLINE takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar "persuasion industries" of advertising and public relations and how marketers have developed new ways of integrating their messages deeper into the fabric of our lives. Through sophisticated market research methods to better understand consumers and by turning to the little-understood techniques of public relations to make sure their messages come from sources we trust, marketers are crafting messages that resonate with an increasingly cynical public. In this documentary essay, correspondent Douglas Rushkoff (correspondent for FRONTLINE's "The Merchants of Cool") also explores how the culture of marketing has come to shape the way Americans understand the world and themselves and how the techniques of the persuasion industries have migrated to politics, shaping the way our leaders formulate policy, influence public opinion, make decisions, and stay in power.

Noam Chomsky has lectured and written books about the corporate and political power structures in this country. More than the mass media, more than thousands of protestors being allowed to peaceably assemble, and more even than Amy Goodman or Michael Moore, I think of Noam Chomsky as the reason the First Amendment makes this such a great country.

This movie explores one of his favorite topics - Corporate America. The corporation exists for 1 purpose only - to make a profit for it's shareholders, and if taken as a whole, the corporation's actions were weighed as you would weigh a person's, you would probably find it's actions immoral and psychopathic.

The Corporation - A film by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan

One hundred and fifty years ago, the corporation was a relatively insignificant entity. Today, it is a vivid, dramatic and pervasive presence in all our lives. Like the Church, the Monarchy and the Communist Party in other times and places, the corporation is today’s dominant institution. But history humbles dominant institutions. All have been crushed, belittled or absorbed into some new order. The corporation is unlikely to be the first to defy history. In this complex and highly entertaining documentary, Mark Achbar, co-director of the influential and inventive MANUFACTURING CONSENT: NOAM CHOMSKY AND THE MEDIA, teams up with co-director Jennifer Abbott and writer Joel Bakan to examine the far-reaching repercussions of the corporation’s increasing preeminence. Based on Bakan’s book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, the film is a timely, critical inquiry that invites CEOs, whistle-blowers, brokers, gurus, spies, players, pawns and pundits on a graphic and engaging quest to reveal the corporation’s inner workings, curious history, controversial impacts and possible futures. Featuring illuminating interviews with Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn and many others, THE CORPORATION charts the spectacular rise of an institution aimed at achieving specific economic goals as it also recounts victories against this apparently invincible force.

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