Get the latest gossip

Monopoly: the Movie? Pop culture has become a series of lukewarm adverts – and it’s all so very dull

From films about Play-Doh and Barbie to the Shrek ‘experience’, consumer capitalism has run out of ideas, says freelance writer Dan Hancox

You might have noticed, on a recent trip to the shops, Lynx x Marmite deodorant, Mr Men x Carex Tutti Frutti hand wash, or Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing x Crocs (yes, that is salad dressing-branded footwear). The author and academic William Davies summarised this absurd state of play in 2022: “Britain’s capitalist class has effectively given up on the future,” he wrote: abandoning investment in R&D, new ideas, skills, technologies and products, or innovation of any kind – instead wringing every last drop from the assets they already own. Rather than an economy dedicated to forging new ideas, we have one better characterised as “rentier capitalism ”, whereby income is generated not by productive activity, but through the ownership and renting out or licensing of a scarce asset of some kind – which could be housing, but could also apply to a beloved family board game.

Get the Android app