Chris Hackley is Professor of Marketing at Royal Holloway University of London. His PhD from Strathclyde University explored the advertising development process in top London ad agencies. Chris’s teaching and research explore consumer cultural and policy issues around management, advertising and marketing. He also blogs, and comments in national media. He has been interviewed about young people and ‘binge’ drinking on BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News and BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed, about TV product placement on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours, and about the X Factor TV talent show on BBC Radio 5Live. His research has been cited in government reports on alcohol policy, and, less favourably, he was once attacked online by Conservative ‘special advisors’ over a piece he wrote about ‘A’ Levels in the Times Higher, for which distinction he received an honourable mention in Private Eye magazine.       

Chris’s latest book uses the theatrical metaphor of the mise-en-scéne to explore the cultural context-dependence of marketing practice. A key idea of the book is that the most subtly effective marketing leaves an interpretive space open for the consumer, and hence challenges extreme versions of the ‘culture industry’ thesis. It is called Marketing in Context, from Palgrave MacMillan, to be published in November 2013.