Advertising in Popular Culture: Stealth Marketing in The Joneses

Advertising in Popular Culture articles provide an in-depth discussion of how a text, such as a television show, film, or short story, represents and reflects on advertising’s place in society and culture. In this article, a group of scholars talk about the 2009 movie The Joneses, the tale of a family of four manufactured by a marketing company to sell products to the unwitting populace of an upper-class suburban neighborhood. The undercover salespeople calling themselves the Joneses move into a luxury home with all the trappings, pretend to be husband, wife, son, and daughter, and proceed to model, showcase, and push items like cars, designer dresses, golf clubs, furniture, cosmetics, and food and beverages. They are paid actors monitored closely for their sales numbers by the company who provides them with free items from clients that produce these consumable goods. Tension builds when most of the Joneses realize they aren’t being their authentic selves and nearly blow their cover. Another plot point exposes the unfairness of the ploy as the Joneses’ neighbor, Larry, goes into crippling debt trying to “keep up” with them.