In today’s extremely online world, we see branding going beyond just selling products. From tech giants to entertainment companies, corporations are deploying “brand evangelism” to create devoted followings with cultish loyalty.
This phenomenon has turned product consumption into a substitute for deeper, more meaningful pursuits—and for many fans, it’s become a pseudo-religion.
Corporations have mastered this technique by transforming consumers into die-hard fans who spread the word of their favorite brands as if they were gospel. This shift has dangerous implications. Rather than encouraging the virtue of true religion, self-discovery, or even healthy consumer choices, these brands are offering an easy and addictive stand-in for deeper purpose in life. And like any addiction, the pursuit of more: more products, more entertainment, more content, can leave us feeling hollow.
Related: A Tale of Two Cults
Because brand evangelism is deliberate emotional and psychological manipulation. Consider how major entertainment franchises build not just a fan base, but a belief system. They tell us that their stories are more than just entertainment; they are lifestyles. Owning a product, participating in an event, or watching a show becomes part of an identity.
It becomes a ritual.
Yet, this allegiance to brands and products often comes at a price. Just as an addict reaches for the next fix, fans of corporate entertainment intellectual properties are pushed to consume more in an endless cycle of anticipation and purchase. Whether it’s the latest film in a franchise or the hottest gadget from a tech company, there’s a constant pressure to stay in the loop by owning the next big thing, experiencing the next event, or showing off brand loyalty.
And the implications of such pop cultery are far more insidious than just wasting time and money.
The danger of this trend lies in how it subtly covers up a lack of meaning with a never-ending cycle of consumption. True meaning and fulfillment can only come from a relationship with the divine source of all meaning. But mass consumerism presents an attractive yet ultimately shallow alternative.
Corporations have become experts at delivering quick, temporary highs: the excitement of a new release, the joy of a purchase, or the sense of belonging to the in-group. Yet these experiences are fleeting, and the consoomer’s underlying hunger for purpose remains unsatisfied. The more people invest in corporate brands, the more they distance themselves from the source of deeper meaning. This creates a dependency on the next hit of entertainment or product.
Just as an addiction becomes more powerful the longer it goes unchecked, the same happens with brand loyalty and consumerism. The act of consumption becomes a coping mechanism for lack of purpose. In the Pop Cult, where every purchase feels like part of a larger, meaningful Narrative, validation comes cheap and easy. But as with any addiction, it’s just a fleeting distraction from a deeper deprivation. Mass consumerism, driven by corporate IP, conditions fans to substitute the long-term pursuit of real meaning with short-term gratification. It turns consumption into a prefabricated identity. And it keeps the Pop Cultists from confronting the void they are trying to fill.
And these effects, too, are by design.
A 1967 University of Pittsburgh study tried to predict socioeconomic conditions in the year 2001. Participants included Isaac Asimov and R. Buckminster Fuller, who made a number of relevant and chilling pronouncements here:
The key takeaways from the study for our purposes are:
- Populations in the global south will boom
- Ever-increasing automation will combine with the above trend to produce a massive unemployable class (“insiginficant people”)
- The only answer is for governments and corporations to give the vast “useless class” the only meaning left to them: as permanent customers
How can permanently jobless masses remain consumers? “Easy,” say our secular elites. “When you control the money supply, you can just keep the printers running, because ‘Line always goes up!'”
That’s not wild speculation on my part. Here’s World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab’s top guy echoing the 1967 eggheads 50 years later:
Nor are these elite bugmen just passively predicting developments they’d rather stop but think are inevitable. The subtext is that they want most of humanity reduced to aimless consumers that depend on the controllers of the money spigot for meaning. Because the bugmen are certian they they will be those elites.
That’s why these self-styled geniuses have to deny free will even as they try to convince you of their vision. Because if you think you have the free choice to not consume product, you might take it.
And then their power is gone.
Does that mean the big entertainment monopolies are using brand evangelism to create purposeless consumers as part of some grand design a half-century in the making? Not necessarily. But it does mean that fans of corporate IP should be cautious about how deeply they invest in these brands.
There is nothing inherently wrong with enjoying a well-crafted film, reading a book honestly written to entertain, or playing a game whose devs understand that games exist to bring fun. But when that enjoyment curdles into a substitute for meaning, it can become a stumbling block.
Because true fulfillment doesn’t come from what we consume. Our true end is eternal life with God, not consuming product until death. Instead of seeking validation in the next Hollywood blockbuster or Big Tech product release, we must ask ourselves what truly matters.
Remember: Brand evangelism isn’t just about building loyalty to a product; it’s about creating dependency that distracts from real life. Breaking this cycle means recognizing that we don’t need more stuff to find purpose. Heed Tyler Durden’s warning. Take care that what you own doesn’t end up owning you.
In this decadent age when corporations and governments strive to be the source of our meaning, fulfillment, and even identity, it’s vital to remember that true meaning can never be bought.
What you can buy is honest indie fiction that entertains while affirming the higher source of meaning. Like my new fantasy novel Lord of Fate, now funding on Kickstarter.
With our first three goals unlocked, we’re closing in on our next Stretch Goal: the Lord of Fate deluxe edition with alternate hardcover by the incredible Marcelo Orsi Blanco
Unlock the alternate hardcover–and the Burned Book audio version!
So help us hit our current $5K benchmark. Back Lord of Fate now!Â
This is why I say the one criticism of The Last Fanatics I won’t let stand are those who say I’m preaching my religion in it. That’s what’s funny about it–I wasn’t. The obvious conclusion to come through when looking at what these people were doing and what they believed is that it turned to shit because it was a shit religion built off of falsehoods and denial of reality. If they had a proper religion we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.
Related:
“I wonder where David Asimov got those connections to not only get into the cheese pizza industry but also get off scot-free without even a single mugshot or photo of him out there to this day.”
This is why I don’t argue with siffy fans about this topic anymore. They know their religion is over but they don’t want to take the next step that comes after it. So this is what you’ll keep getting until you do.
A book to look at if you want an idea of SF fandom’s future is When Prophecy Fails, the real account of how a UFO cult reacted when the mothership didn’t come for them.
Hint: A sizable number of them didn’t admit and amend their errors.
Hey, it’s been 180 years, and the Seventh-Day Adventists are still around…
That’s a great comparison.
Thanks to your inner circle and the conversations we have in the back room/cigar lounge about this topic, it’s forced me to evaluate my relationship with consumer and branded culture as of. By no means have I ever been one to seek meaning in what I consume, if anything, the opposite is true: I’ve been more gun shy to admit I like anything out of fear of judgement and fear of being labelled as a consuumerist fanatic – a product of the extreme times we live in. That pendulum swing in the opposite direction hasn’t been good either because I find it harder to enjoy things even if that things deserves some form of criticism. I’m at the point that I want to just say unironically, “Just enjoy stuff.” but in an implied tone, “Don’t let it become your religion.”
[soap box]
More related to your opening remarks, I’ve seen it first hand how business culture is overinflated, which is usually dictated by marketing and sales people. It wants to make everyone a Campellian hero with a business’ product being the equivalent of Excalibur to win the day. Every business ‘has’ to have a story and the consumer has to be a part of it. How egotistical do you have to be to think all this hoopla is what really drives people, it’s all vain? If you did a study of how much that line of thinking effects consumer spending, I bet you’d find it’s statistically irrelevant. What would I know? I’m straightforward consumer – I buy stuff if it works and for a fair price. I don’t care about the fanfare and marketing m*sterbation that businesses try to push*.
Though I have to laugh that subtly this nu-age marketing an corporate culture is coming full circle where you can’ tell what a business does by their blurb. You know it’s bad when a bank’s blurb is about “building community”. My response is, then you’re not a bank.
[end soapbox]
*It also helps I haven’t had cable TV in over a decade and I use ad blockers for everything so I’m not exposed to such foolishness.
Glad to offer whatever help I can, however small.
What clicked with me while researching this post is how all the pieces fit together. The Pop Cult isn’t just a byproduct of the Death Cult seizing cultural institutions. Instead, it’s an essential part of their socioeconomic control system.
Our decadent elites want to dissolve their unruly peoples and elect 3rd worlders from the global south. The welfare state/printer go brrrr/UBI will provide the model citizens of the future with a steady flow of product to consoom – not just as bread and circuses to keep them pacified, but as a reason for them to exist (giving all the printed money somewhere to go so the elites’ line keeps going up ad infinitum).
Tl; dr: Consuming corporate product isn’t just a harmless case of “having fun.” It’s proximate material cooperation with a Luciferian plan to destroy every Western nation.
Maybe you have written on this already, but how does sports fanaticism fit into the pop cult brand? To me it doesn’t seem any different. My mechanic has an entire wall in his shop devoted to the Seahawks. Posters, jerseys, cards, DVDs, football, etc. Man must have spent thousands of dollars not on stuff he can do, but on stuff to show off.
This comic strip speaks volumes on that subject: https://stonetoss.com/comic/like-father/
I *have* noticed that certain fandoms get unusually defensive if you point out the flaws in their favourite product, even if what’s being pointed out is how much they’re being scammed.
People who’ve been drawn into a cult react the same way. What does that tell us?