Jennifer Government
Max Berry
Abacus
2004
Fiction
Pages: 352
Price: 2.99 pounds
ISBN: 0349117624
Paperback
Two good things happen when you read Max Barry’s Jennifer Government. One: You fall off your seat laughing (suggestion: pad the floor with cushions). Two: You mop the sweat off your brow because, hallelujah, you’re not the only person in the world to be paranoid about MNCs and marketing. It feels so good to know you’re not alone.
Australian writer Barry — who worked in marketing himself and is therefore in the know — creates a world in which large American corporates rule the world and the government is merely a crime-prevention agency.
Prevention only — prosecution too has been privatised. Money and consumerism are everything, people take on the names of the companies and agencies they work for, and if you want to be top of the heap, marketing is where you ought to be.
But if you’re in marketing, minor things like ethics shouldn’t bother you. Unfortunately, Hack Nike finds that out the hard way when he’s suddenly kicked upstairs from merchandising to marketing and realises that the contract he’s signed for his new position means he’ll have to kill a few teenagers to pump up excitement about the new Nike Mercury shoes.
And when he gives in to his greed and ambition and actually sets up the murders, he finds himself the target of the very stubborn law-enforcer, Jennifer Government, who’ll do anything to destroy this market-driven culture.
But if you’re in marketing, minor things like ethics shouldn’t bother you. Unfortunately, Hack Nike finds that out the hard way when he’s suddenly kicked upstairs from merchandising to marketing and realises that the contract he’s signed for his new position means he’ll have to kill a few teenagers to pump up excitement about the new Nike Mercury shoes.
And when he gives in to his greed and ambition and actually sets up the murders, he finds himself the target of the very stubborn law-enforcer, Jennifer Government, who’ll do anything to destroy this market-driven culture.