The world is more branded than ever before: Americans encounter anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 ads a day, and increasingly brands vie for our attention from insidious angles that target our emotional responses (scent, taste, sound, and touch). In an ever-faster, more competitive global landscape, branding, or identity-making, has begun to replace the research and development of yore.

From the fertile crescent of branding (Cincinnati) to the laboratories of sensory specialists (musicologists, and “noses”), Lucas Conley investigates the phenomenon of rampant commercialism (often backed by little substance), offering an illuminating portrait of an age of obsession.