The legal dematerialization of enchantment: prizes, brands and the magical economics of something-for-nothing

Abstract

This article brings together cultural studies and legal history to address a particular mode of historical enchantment, namely, the economic magic of something-for-nothing. Considered within the early history of mass advertising in Britain, the magic appears to have migrated: it appeared in materialized form in the somewhat forgotten history of nineteenth-century prize and gift advertising, which was gradually superseded by a dematerialized form found in brand advertising. The article examines the process of dematerialization, suggesting that it was unwittingly encouraged by law, which is read here as a public debate about the possibility of getting something for nothing in the market. Legal responses to prize- and brand advertising reveal a marked divergence. They were far more prohibitive toward the former, and thus created conditions in which it made sense for advertisers to dematerialize the benefits they offered, and for consumers to seek dematerialized windfalls. This history reframes the periodization of advertising's modernization, its mood, and the place of law in the history of brand capitalism