Come on be happy: strategies of control and discursive manipulation of emotions in advertising and corporate realms

Abstract

This article investigates how advertising and corporate domains seek to control and manipulate discursively the affectivities and subjectivities of consumers and workers, linking them to organizational values, in order to improve productive efficiency, increase consumption and maximize profits. Methodologically, we analyzed advertisings and entrepreneurship cases that highlight the role of emotions in neoliberalism, based in Casaqui (2017), Castro (2013), Charaudeau (2016), Deleuze (1992), Elias (1994), Freire Filho (2010), Foucault (2004), Illouz (2011), Lazzarato (2004), among others. As a result of the research, we verified that today emotions are conceived as a company’s capital, assuming the mission of affectively linking consumers and workers to the soul of the corporation.