And May the Odds Be Always in Your Favour: What ‘The Hunger Games’ Can Teach Us about Today’s Marketing Academia

Some consumer researchers suggested in the 1980s that fictional novels and artworks would tell us more about consumer behaviour, life and the human condition than scientific papers in our top-tier journals. Following in their tradition, this critical paper argues that “The Hunger Games”-trilogy provides a perfect mirror for The Publishing Games that haunt marketing academia in recent years. Just like the Hunger Games are the means by which the Capitol’s ruling elite subdues Panem’s wider population, the Publishing Games seem to reinforce the dominance of what an established scholarly elite perceives to be the appropriate marketing thought and methodology – perhaps to the detriment of innovation, creativity and broader impact within marketing academia. This paper suggests that marketing scholars have the choice: Either to sacrifice your integrity and play the game or to subvert the system. Perhaps a new consumer behaviour odyssey is needed to rekindle a new way of thinking