ABSTRACT
This chapter looks in depth at the relationship between Sophism and marketing. The chapter returns to Plato and the issue of the middle position of the marketer to demonstrate how that philosopher treated the Sophists in a very similar way—as infecting, dangerous outsiders who threatened the balance of society and the morals of those who composed it. On this basis the chapter examines the legacy of Sophism, asking what made it unique as a rhetorical approach and what made it so threatening to Plato and Aristotle. This leads to a discussion of the way in which marketers are seen in modern society, and how the sorts of accusations and negative sentiment that are routinely thrown at marketing are very similar to the ways in which Plato and his philosophical descendants saw both the marketers of their time and the Sophists. The chapter argues that the reason for this similarity is the fact that marketers (both ancient and modern) and Sophists were both performing very similar roles in society based upon controlling attention and the appreciation of value. Finally, the chapter considers the question of why, if the links between rhetoric and marketing are so clear, there has been so little effort made by scholars of rhetoric to engage with marketing.
