The times they are not a changing: neoliberal interpellation, revisiting the Frankfurt school

There is now a growing critical literature documenting the rise of media driven consumer cultures within contemporary liberal-democratic societies like those of the US and the UK. According to this literature, there is a reciprocal relationship between the mainstream media and state-corporate economic interests, where the corporate media and ubiquitous corporate advertisements spread a consumer ideology that seeks to interpellate young people into market discourses and identities that are congruent with a neoliberal teleology. This article seeks to add to this literature by reexamining and building on the social-psychological and political economic works of the classic Frankfurt School theorists namely; Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse, to analyze the hegemonic cultural-ideological dimensions of modern neoliberal societies. Referencing mostly US and UK empirical and textual evidence, with a brief section on related international case studies, this article also argues that the societal adoption and promotion of what can be considered neoliberal norms and
values (e.g., consumerism, materialism, self-interestedness, and competitiveness) can lead to detrimental ecological, psychological, and societal effects that have potential global consequences.