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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the history and contents of an archival resource that is of interest to scholars of historical marketing. The Pirate Group Inc. archive, held by McMaster University Library’s William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections consists of over 27,000 sound recordings and 84 metres of textual records, documenting the work of Pirate, an award-winning Toronto-based advertising company founded in 1990. The comprehensiveness of the archives, which includes tens of thousands of advertising “spots”, gives researchers unprecedented access to the creative forces behind some of the most memorable advertisements produced in Canada.

This paper aims to answer the following questions: what is the Pirate Group Inc. and what is their documentary legacy? How can scholars of marketing history benefit from the records contained within the Pirate Group Inc. archive? How can researchers access the material at McMaster University Library’s William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections?

The authors assert that the Pirate Group Inc. archive may be of particular interest to scholars engaged in research on the following topics: Canadian nationalism in marketing campaigns, the advertising history of companies whose histories are under-studied due to a lack of archival resources and the recent history of radio and television political ad campaigns.

The paper contributes to historical research in marketing by asserting that the Pirate Group Inc. archive has continuing value for further research. The Pirate archive, which allows for unprecedented access into the study of Canadian advertising due to its comprehensiveness and its uniqueness among archival collections from the contemporary era, makes it a strong primary source for marketing historians.

Critical Management Studies (CMS) in Postmodernity (PM) has been playfully posed as a double oxymoron, i.e. “CMS” to examine the contradiction of an emancipatory discourse predominantly cast in a managerialist tenor; “CMS in PM” to examine the feasibility of taking any position at all in the context postmodern theorizing. Using playful references to Darth Vader’s pursuit of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, proceeds with a deconstruction of the critical theorists’ pursuit of metatheories to explain (true) oppressions to be addressed in the liberation of victims. Teases the postmodernist magical elimination of victims in their discourse of difference. Sadly though, the elimination of “victims” in theorizing does not mean racism, sexism, and economic oppression are no longer experienced by human beings. Takes a light‐hearted but serious approach in regaining the emancipatory potential of Critical Management Studies to inform organizational change.