At the end of the twentieth century, Britain was a consumer society. Intoxicating and addictive, commerce had almost entirely colonized modern life. People were immersed in, and ultimately defined by, promotional culture. The things they consumed had overtaken class, region, geography, or occupation as the primary form of self-identity and self-expression. The Persuasion Industries: The Making of Modern Britain explores how this change happened. For much of the twentieth century all forms of brand communication- from political campaigning to product advertising- were based on the theory of rational appeals to rational consumers. There was only one problem with this theory: it didn't work. The Persuasion Industries looks at the emergence impact of an alternative theory, based on behavioural economics, which held that consumers were driven not by the head but by the heart; that their behaviour was complex and unpredictable; and that they engaged with the world most readily at an emotional level. This simple idea proved so compelling that it changed the world we live in.