Unmarketable begins with an entertaining and telling anecdote about a workshop Moore and her friend hosted a few years ago called “free candy,” during which they doled out free candy to anyone willing to “authentically” promote their fake magazine. Silly as the experiment was, it exemplified just how easily people will sign away their souls when there’s something to be gained in exchange. Chicago readers may find the book particularly interesting as many of us have witnessed at least one of these campaigns firsthand. For instance, she explains why Toyota Yaris promoters appeared at a Venus Zine release party we attended last year at the Mars Gallery. Knowing the night would attract its target consumers, a crowd of DIYers, Toyota attempted to capitalize on the captive audience by simply creating an association.

While we benefit from Moore’s insider perspective (as an activist and former associate publisher of the now-defunct Punk Planet magazine, she’s closely connected with several of the people she profiles), she never talks down to readers nor stands on a soapbox. Instead, she fairly criticizes the tactics of both capitalists and anticonsumption crusaders, like Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. It’s all cretinous to Moore, who writes, “Marketing has simply become so diffuse as to be a social activity.”

Moore reads Sunday 4.