Shopping, marketing, advertising

Shopping, marketing, and advertising are certainly fueling major news stories. A story in this morning's Boston Globe talked about the generational divide evident with the viral advertising campaign which shut down the city of Boston yesterday. TJX's data hack makes me wonder how much "stuff" do I really need? Is "stuff" really what I am getting out of shopping or is it something totally different? Marketing and product placement are interesting to contemplate but are infuriating if my grocer moves things so that I can't shop "in the zone." Approaching the top of my bookstack is Not Buying It : My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine (658.8 LEV.) TJX is pushing me in this direction (I've already been the route of the compromised credit card when the Boston Globe goofed last year.) Other newish books which are looking good include:
The Long Tail : Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson (658.802 AND)
Why We Buy : the Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill (658.8 UND)
Branded: the Buying and Selling of Teenagers by Alissa Quart (658.83 QUA)
Born to Buy : the Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture by Juliet B. Schor (305.23 SCH)
Packaging Girlhood : Rescuing our Daughters from Marketers' Schemes by Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown (306.3 LAM)
A Consumers' Republic by Lizabeth Cohen (339.47 COH)
The Overspent American : Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer by Juliet B. Schor (339.47 SCH)
Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin (659.13)