In Brutal Times is the visual story about the poetic possibility in consumer and marketing research. It presents lyrical themes in quick past and current academic references as newspaper flashes from Gotham City. The syncopated rhythm of heretical and mainstream theory is alternated with hands-on examples of poetic brutality.

The film procured currency when it won the Best Film Award at the 2014 ACR conference in Baltimore, with the following comments from the jury: “This film throws into sharp relief how filmic representations of – a poetic, arguably pre-conscious nature – can move, amaze and disrupt audiences while simultaneously furnishing novel insights about consumer behaviour.” The alternative representation aims to contribute to the acceptance of poetic research in commerce. The site contains both full film, and short discontinuous moments with the aim of supplying succinct materials for method lectures, and to inspire the next generation of artful hunters for consumer insights.