Cult v Marketing Class

This course is based on my new book, Hoodwinked.

You don’t have to get the book but, like any class, you will gain more from it if you read the textbook.

Videos will be posted to TikTok and YouTube

Session #1 — Course overview/Introduction to Cults and Marketing

Reading: Hoodwinked, Introduction; VIDEO Escape from Jonestown (YouTube) Jonestown, 1978

In this session, we will introduce the Cult + Marketing Continuum and explain why we are not living in an attention economy, but an anxiety economy.

Session #2 — What is a Cult?

Reading: Hoodwinked, Chapter 1; Keeping it 101: Cults (Podcast, can listen or read transcript)

Video: Waco: The Rules of Engagement - Branch Davidians (1993)

Session #3 — Cult Recruiting Tactics, Deceptive Marketing

Reading: Hoodwinked, Chapter 1 (Gray box)

                Why I joined a cult and how I got out

Videos: Why do people join cults? (Janja Lalich)

            Inside the troubled past of NXIVM founder Keith Raniere

Escaping NXIVM: Behind the investigation of the alleged sex cult

Session #4 — Cult retention: Communities

Reading: Brand Community Albert M. Muniz, Jr., Thomas C. O'Guinn, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 27, Issue 4, March 2001, Pages 412-432, https://doi.org/10.1086/319618 (this may only be available behind a paywall).

The Science of Sensory Marketing, Harvard Business Review

               In Class: Clips from Brandy Hellville