Reviews

The Playbook: Protecting the Corporation from the Risks of Scientific Knowledge by Jennifer Jacquet

flexcent's review

informative reflective fast-paced

1.0

Meh. All the "techniques" described seem pretty obvious, so it didn't feel like I learned that much. Most of the case studies it looks at are also pretty famous.

beckycliffe's review

informative medium-paced

4.0

annarella's review

4.0

If you ever worked in big corp you will recognise some of the things explained in this book and wonder if there's also the rest.
It's interesting and thought provoking
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

kawooreads's review

funny informative medium-paced

4.0

 I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher after winning a giveaway on Instagram.  The Playbook is a facetious guide for "The Corporation" on how to successfully deny, dismiss, and downplay scientific knowledge. Within these pages, Jacquet provides a framework offering creative tactics on how to choose money over truth. She then provides an array of examples from the past century of how the tobacco industry, meat/dairy/seafood industry, and fossil-fuel industry (among others) have been successful at creating a culture of disinformation as well as distrust of authority and government regulation, where everyone is an "expert" whose opinion should matter more than the actual science. How long have we known cigarettes are deadly to humans? A long time, but not as long as the cigarette industry has known. Since I read a lot on this topic, it wasn't super surprising to see the lengths industry has gone in order to keep our Capitalist society thriving, although I found the approach to the writing unique and fun. Instead of your typical investigative reporting that is blunt and scathing, this one is flippant and nonchalant, and it adds to the overall theme of the book that anything is possible when you just deny and lie! When you peel back the layers of this book you find it is an expose on how hard corporations have worked to push back on scientific research in order to trick you. I recommend this book to everyone, as you may learn a little bit about how funding resources and industry oversight have stunted our collective repository of scientific knowledge. 

helenecats's review

adventurous challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

4.5

Reading The Playbook: How to Deny Science, Sell Lies, and Make a Killing in the Corporate World by Jennifer Jacquet was at times infuriating, other times really sad, sometimes funny. This short non-fiction book has an interesting format. It's a satirical "playbook" for corporations, detailing all the tricks to avoid science and its accompanying regulations. 

I already knew that money rules the world, but this book opened my eyes to a few things. Firstly, that a lot of scientists are being bought out by companies. Not outright, but effectively, a lot of research and PhD are being funded by industry. With a few caveats, such as, if the results are not what that corporations need or want, then they can often ask these scientists to rerun the study, or to buy the results. 

You think I'm exaggerating? 

Ask yourself why it took so many decades for tobacco ads to be banned, for smoking and cancer to be directly linked. 

Ask yourself why fossil fuels companies continue to make so much profit despite them being well aware of their devastating impact on the planet, since the 70s. 

Ask yourself why fish are about to disappear from the ocean, and why meat consumption is on the rise despite the many studies linking the cattle industry to cancer and deforestation.

There is so much in this book which is pretty scary yet not that surprising. Governments and the media are often  complicit; for example giving as much importance, exposure or even protection to inaccurate studies or dangerous, biased ideas. Why? Because it creates controversy, clicks, votes… I won't really go into much more detail, but I highly recommend picking this up. It is an addictive read about politics, science, and PR. 

The only caveat is that there aren't many explanations as to why we are still in this mess decades after realising that most corporations are evil entities, putting profit before everything. A takedown of the American education system, or capitalism, and possible alternatives, would have been interesting. But perhaps that is for another book…!

Thank you @NetGalley and @penguinrandomhouse for a proof copy in exchange of an honest review.

fiendfull's review

3.0

 The Playbook is a nonfiction book about how corporations deny science in order to make money, told in the format of a playbook aimed at these corporations telling them about all the techniques that can be used. The book explores concepts like engaging with academics and PR companies, dealing with statistics, and reframing arguments, as well as having a satirical glossary that looks at how particular words and ideas are used in this fight. 

 

This is high concept nonfiction that combines facts with satire, combining many actual business practices with a mocking tone in order to engage people with a topic that could come across as quite dry. I liked the concept and it did make the book easily digestible, though sometimes the tone would grate a bit. Due to the presentation as a playbook, there is more of a focus on what and how rather than why, so the book is a useful exposition but doesn't offer analysis of what could be done to combat these techniques, if anything.