Before Naomi Klein there was Vance Packard

Entitled THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS, it remains a classic study of the subliminal marketing methods being employed at the time in 50's America. But he goes further.
He reasoned that if not checked, the companies would refine their methods still further, and would eventually seek to influence and control the actual political life of the nation.
With a severe warning ("you have little room for complacency") his book is divided into two main sections, the first focussing on consumerism, the second on the corporate infiltration of the political fabric.
One tragic aspect of Vance's long life is that he died in 1996, just before the rise of the anti- brand movement that is so central to the modern left.