The Marketing of Evil

Americans have come to tolerate, embrace, and even champion many things—from easy divorce and unrestricted abortion-on-demand to extreme body piercing and teaching homosexuality to grade-schoolers—that would have horrified previous generations. Does that mean today's mainstream Americans are inherently more morally confused and depraved than previous generations? Of course not, says veteran journalist David Kupelian. But they have fallen victim to some of the most stunningly brilliant and compelling marketing campaigns in modern history.   The Marketing of Evil, now out in paperback, reveals how much of what Americans once almost universally abhorred has been packaged, perfumed, gift-wrapped, and sold to them as though it had great value. Highly skilled marketers, playing on our sense of fairness, generosity, and tolerance, have persuaded us to embrace as enlightened and noble that which all previous generations since America's founding regarded as grossly self-destructive—in a word, evil.