Forty years of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs): the evolution of a marketplace icon

In spite of their normalized status in our global, cultural landscape, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) remain surprisingly overlooked as a marketplace icon. This paper goes on to argue that ARTs enact the superlative, iconic “myth of rebellion” by tinkering with life, determining cellular structures and offering a new view of human conception. We then briefly discuss why assisted reproductive technologies are underexplored in marketing scholarship and suggest reasons for this oversight. Finally, we demonstrate how ART procedures offer a fascinating lens through which marketing scholars can apprehend and further problematize consumer ambivalence, complex decision making, and new forms of consumer responsibilization.