Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults

Powerhouse marketing expert, narrator of Netflix's Buy Now documentary, shows how today's biggest brands are using cult-like tactics to capture not just your wallet, but your devotion.

From viral leggings to must-have apps, Dr. Mara Einstein exposes the hidden parallels between cult manipulation and modern marketing strategies in this eye-opening investigation. Drawing from her unique background as both a former MTV marketing executive and a respected media studies professor, she reveals how companies weaponize psychology to transform casual customers into devoted followers.

This groundbreaking book uncovers:

• How social media platforms use anxiety-inducing algorithms to keep you trapped in a purchase-panic cycle
• The secret playbook marketers use to create "brand religions" around everyday products
• Why even the most rational consumers fall prey to scarcity marketing and manufactured FOMO
• Practical strategies to break free from manipulative digital marketing tactics

With compelling real-world examples and insights from industry insiders, Hoodwinked equips you with the knowledge to recognize and resist these sophisticated manipulation techniques. Dr. Einstein's expertise has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review, making her the perfect guide through the maze of modern marketing manipulation.

Break free from the cult of consumerism--discover how to make mindful choices in an increasingly manipulative digital marketplace.

"Easy to read, and such a good peek behind the curtain of for-profit companies and the ways they influence and manipulate us," --Daniella Young, author of Uncultured

Author: Mara Einstein
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 02/04/2025
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 9.31h x 6.37w x 0.93d
ISBN: 9781493086153


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 01/01/2025 pg. 73

About the Author
Dr. Mara Einstein is a powerhouse marketing critic. After working for a decade in corporate marketing for some of the biggest names in the business (hello, MTV), she left to become an academic. She is a tenured professor and former chair in the department of media studies at Queens College (CUNY). She is a tenured professor and former chair in the department of media studies at Queens College (CUNY).

Mara is regularly quoted in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, and The Wall Street Journal, among many others, and has appeared on HuffPost Live, The Brian Lehrer Show, NPR's Marketplace (multiple times) and popular podcasts, such as The Majority Report with Sam Seder. She has also written for Advertising Age, Harvard Business Review, Newsday, and Fastcoexist, and given talks from Brazil to the UK on topics from marketing religion to social media influencers.

Mara serves as the inaugural chair of the research and academic group of The Impact Guild, which empowers people to use media, technology, and pop culture for social good and healthy democracies. She has served as an expert for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), was named one of 100 Significant Women in Native Advertising by the Native Advertising Association, and is an Emmy-voting member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Locally, she is on the board of the Kew Gardens Civic Association, fighting against building new jails and for the MTA to support local businesses.

Dr. Einstein (and, yes, she is distantly related) holds a PhD in Media Ecology from New York University, an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.