Cosmic profit: Countercultural commerce and the problem of trust in American marketing

This article offers an historical thesis on the demise of impersonal mass marketing and its replacement by personal niche or lifestyle marketing. Two parallel discussions are examined on the moral possibilities of marketing: one within the mainstream marketing establishment and the other among a countercultural network of small businesses. On a macro‐theoretical level, theories of moral identity (derived from Anthony Giddens) are used to describe the anxieties provoked by a popular failure of trust in mass marketing generally, and the significance of lifestyles in refurbishing this trust. On a cultural–historical level, the dialogue between mainstream and countercultural businesses reveals how these anxieties were addressed through lifestyles meant to affirm trust and intimacy between marketers and consumers. An analysis of the intellectual synergy between countercultures and mainstream marketers suggests an alternative to the standard understanding of cooptation.