The sequel capitalism definitely didn't want you to see. Jhally's back, and he's ANGRY.
In this highly anticipated sequel to his groundbreaking, ADVERTISING AND THE END OF THE WORLD, media scholar Sut Jhally explores the devastating personal and environmental fallout from advertising, commercial culture, and rampant American consumerism. Ranging from the emergence of the modern advertising industry in the early 20th century to the full-scale commercialization of the culture today, Jhally identifies one consistent message running throughout all of advertising: the idea that corporate brands and consumer goods are the keys to human happiness. He then shows how this powerful narrative, backed by billions of dollars a year and propagated by the best creative minds, has blinded us to the catastrophic costs of ever-accelerating rates of consumption.
Writing
Jhally's surgical takedown of happiness-as-product.
Editing
Century-spanning archival footage, brutally effective.
Direction
Earp and Jhally weaponize the documentary form itself.
Director
Sut Jhally
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Jhally founded the Media Education Foundation in 1992 specifically to distribute critical media scholarship outside academia—this film is essentially anti-advertising propaganda distributed through... educational media markets.
The title's 'Edge of the Apocalypse' framing was controversial even among leftist scholars; some argued it risked collapsing distinct crises (climate, inequality, mental health) into a single monocausal advertising critique.
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