ABSTRACT
Although libertarian humorist O’Rourke once commented that big American corporations represent “the true basis of the American character: utopian greed” (1992, p. 181), most corporate self-promotions contain far too little social commentary to qualify as true utopian discourse. Utopias do not merely offer
self-gratification. They challenge the dominant culture by providing alternative values and lifestyles (Goodwin & Taylor, 1982) and implicitly demand that the status quo justify itself (Ricoeur, 1986). In a society in which corporate advertising is often portrayed as “the ground on which we live, the space in which we think, and the lens through which we come to understand the world that surrounds us” (Jhally, 1993, p. 806, italics original), the appearance of utopian qualities in corporate discourse should point to areas in which corporations are insecure in their control of the space in which we think.
