“The Corporation” is a documentary by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan. This documentary examined the “nature, evolution, impact and possible futures of the modern business corporation.” The documentary was made by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan. A corporation is a business that represents many smaller businesses not that the businesses they represent are small in anyway. Fleet Bank, G.A.P., Versace, Equal, Lipton, M&M, Disney, Cartoon Network, and Best Buy are some of the companies represented by major corporations. These companies are run by various corporations. According to the documentary, “the corporation is today’s dominant institution.”
This documentary examined the impact of today’s big business corporations and how they have obtained so much power. According to the book, The New Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian there were only about fifty mass media corporations in 1963. Fifty sounds like a lot but in reality they were small and not as powerful at the mass media corporations that exist today. In a little over twenty years the number of mass media corporations shrank from fifty to five. The five mass media corporations are Time Warner, Viacom, Bertelsmann Corporation, News Corp, and Disney. Though Bertelsmann isn’t as big and influential as it once was it is still a major player as one of today’s major big business corporations in the mass media. The corporation was born in 1712 and then the modern age is where the corporation took on a life of its own. They use to be limited, but not there are basically any limits for corporations. I liked how they used Football as a metaphor for corporations. Each person plays their own role for one common goal in order to “succeed as an organization.” American big business corporations run this nation.
The documentary states, “The Corporation is part of a jigsaw of society and as a whole if you remove it the pictures incomplete.” Also, if corporations were the only part it wouldn’t work. This means that corporations need society as much as society needs corporations. The documentary also states that in America we just follow the leader. This means that we follow the latest trends according to what has become popular. We copy what we see in the media ignoring the actual messages being out by corporations. In the documentary “Merchants of Cool” the concert held by Sprite and MTV was made to make Sprite look good. Viewers would never realize that the teenagers were paid fifty dollars each to appear at the event. The concert was just a tactic to get teenagers reintegrated with Sprite products. The documentary also discussed the notion of “bad apples” in the corporate world. Corporations cause a great deal of wealth but there are very many hidden harms. The problem is we as a society doesn’t know what corporations are up to behind closed doors.
A portion of this documentary discusses the advertising industry and their hidden goals. Advertising is everywhere, “like a telephone it reaches everywhere and its powerful and impossible to avoid.” For example, Time Square wasn’t created to be pretty it was created to be a massive build board for the most popular products, people, and organizations. It is impossible to avoid being advertised to when you are there. We are constantly being bombarded with advertisements. “Corporations are like monsters trying to devourer as much profits as possible at anyone’s expense.” This means a corporation is like a whale, gentle and big, but can swallow you whole in a second.
I found it interesting that according to the documentary people who work for big business corporations don’t like the word “corporation”. Robert Keyes, who is president and corporate executive officer (CEO) of Canadian Council for International Business says he prefers the word “business” or “business community”. This means that they don’t want people to realize how much power they actually have. Something also found interesting is that corporations think they are a “person” so in a court of law they are considered a “person”. This means that corporations can live under the pretense that they are like “us”. They use this to their advantage because then they can get away with things. A corporation can’t be arrested only fined. This means that the 14th amendment that protected slaves also protects major corporations. Is that really fair? A corporation isn’t a person, but made up of people and each person should be held accountable for their actions as an individual.
Michael Moore came up with the notion that there is “No Such Thing as Enough” for corporations. This means that corporations are never satisfied with what they have and they always want more no matter who they hurt. Kathy Lee Gilford and Wal-Mart put labels on clothing stating that if you purchased the clothing a portion of the proceeds would go to various children’s charities. The disturbing thing is that it is children who are making the clothing. Corporations hide this fact and look like heroes because they are sending money to children charities. They exploit people and come out on top anyway.
This documentary was very eye opening to me. I am now more conscious about what I am purchasing and where the money is going. I try not to support companies that exploit people. The statistics about how much a product costs to make, how much the worker is paid, and how much consumers pay for a product are mind boggling. I thought this documentary brought light to things that corporations try to keep hidden for example their hidden agendas especially in the advertising industry and the clothing industry.
Work Cited:
Bagdikian, B. H. (2004). The new media monopoly. Boston, Massachuetts: Beacon Press.
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