Marketing, Rhetoric and Control

1A History of Rhetoric for Marketers

This chapter provides a grounding in the history of rhetoric so that the reader can later be brought to an understanding of exactly how modern marketing (both its theory and practice) represents the most sophisticated, influential, and articulated flourishing of the rhetorical tradition. The fact that, by and large, both marketing and modern rhetorical studies do not recognise this connection can be argued to be a, rather ironic, function of marketing’s own rhetorical success. In order to lay out the case for this position, we will initially have to concern ourselves with definitions of rhetoric and an overview of its history. In looking at how rhetoric has evolved over time we can develop some appreciation ...