How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Dissapointment
  • Surprisingly Important Book
  • Great - even the most successful iconic brands have emerged more by intuition than by design.
  • Make your brand an icon
  • Planning to be an Icon, not Hoping it will Happen
How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding
D. B. Holt
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1578517745

Book Description

“Iconic brands” (ie: Coca-Cola, Volkswagon, Corona) have social lives and cultural significance that go well beyond product benefits and features

This book distills the strategies used to create the world’s most enduring brands into a new approach called “cultural branding".

Brand identity is more critical than ever today, as more and more products compete for attention across an ever-increasing array of channels. This book offers marketers and managers an alternative to conventional branding strategies, which often backfire when companies attempt to create identity brands.

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars Dissapointment.......2006-02-02

I am very surprised with the rave reviews of this book here. I decided to purchase it for two reasons. First, I trusted the reviews here and decided it would be important to own this book. Second, I am familiar with Douglas Holt's academic work, and have read his articles in academic journals. I thought this book will be very interesting to read.

I am dissapointed mainly because I find that the book does not tell me something original. Instead what Douglas Holt keeps saying in this book is that building an iconic brand is possible by focusing on culture not products. His argument is not convincing, especially when he tries to disprove other forms of brand building: tradition, cultural and emotional. If I have a brand new product, can I still build an icon? Is it advantageous to have an iconic brand? What are the downside of it? These are not talked about in the book.

Another problem is that he keeps repeating the same argument again and again. It gets very boring after a few pages only.

What a disappointment!

4 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Important Book.......2005-11-08

I'm no business-head. I find modern consumerism more disturbing than exciting. But I read this book as part of a study on public relations and I must say Holt's passion for the subject is contagious.
First of all, his writing style is superb. He alternates nicely between anecdotes, charts and philosophy, allowing all sorts of minds to grasp just what he's saying. His ideas were bold and insightful, and he helped me to understand what a craft marketing really is.
I sometimes felt his connections were just that - his connections - but a lot of his ideas rang true, and for the most part his evidence was well, evident.
What I found most impressive was his aknowledgement of all the sexism in marketing. Perhaps it's a bit of sexism on my part, but I hadn't expected a man to pick up on all the overt and covert misogyny inherent in the advertising world. Holt not only saw it, he understood how it connected with the greater social and political environment surrounding it.
How Brands Become Icons should be required reading for every high school student in the country. And that's the first time I've said that. Holt's grasp of the subject goes beyond branding, into the heart of American culture, into the minds of the American people. This is not just a how-to book. It's an important book of why.

4 out of 5 stars Great - even the most successful iconic brands have emerged more by intuition than by design........2005-08-17

This is an excellent book! Douglas B. Holt gives a cultural perspective to branding which is not that trivial to all managers. The book also presents historical analyses on brands like Mountain Dew, Corona, Volkswagen, and many others. The clear message is that iconic brands can't be created through conventional branding strategies, instead there is a need for a cultural perspectice to branding.

5 out of 5 stars Make your brand an icon.......2005-04-14

Informative and entertaining, this book is a combination of cult references and great ideas. A solid guide to making your brand more succesful,Douglas provides the background knowledge you do the rest.

5 out of 5 stars Planning to be an Icon, not Hoping it will Happen.......2004-11-19

A few, a very few products make it to icon status: Coke, Volkswagen and Harley-Davidson to name a few. And these have come about more by chance than by planning. In their time the marketing managers of these companies were just trying to establish next quarters sales.

This is one of the first books I've seen that approaches branding from a view of this kind of permanence, this kind of cultural approach. Most clear is the message that following trends can never build an iconic brand.

I'm not so sure that todays management, focused on this quarter, and maybe next is really ready for thinking about forming a brand that will endure for generations. Yet you do see companies with the kind of foresight to do just that. When Microsoft went into Russia, they went in with the view to establish their brand as the defacto standard. The immediate profits were basically ignored, but next year, and the year after that....

This is a book that has to get above the marketing manager, the CEO needs to provide the direction to say that we want to be the next Klenex.
Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Great book for better understanding the new media world
  • Television Disrupted
  • TV disrupted is the most intelligent book on current and future TV biz
  • Must Read for Media Execs
  • Finally!
Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV
Shelly Palmer
Manufacturer: Focal Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0240808649

Book Description

What's happening to the business of television? Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked Television will empower you to make informed business, career and investment choices by giving insights into the technologies, business rules and legal issues that are shaping the future. Youll learn about: Time-shifted and on-demand viewing, mobile video, file sharing, interactive and advanced media, advertising, copyright laws, paradigm shifts, parlor tricks and much, much more.

This book will serve as a baseline to help executives, investors or professionals get a handle on the future of television and the role it plays in evolving media.

Table of Contents
1: The Businesses of Television
2: Disrupting Television Using Existing Network Technologies
3: Internet
4: Existing Wireless Networks
5: Emerging Networks
6: Content, Storytellers, Gatekeepers and Related Skills
7: Networked Value Propositions
8: Media Consumption
9: Digital Rights Management and Copyright Laws
10: The Evolution of Advertising and Audience Measurement
11: Emerging Advertising Technologies
12: Television Disrupted

About the Author
Shelly Palmer, Managing Partner, Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC, is an award-winning inventor, technologist, composer and television producer. He is the host of Media 3.0 with Shelly Palmer, a weekly business news show that can be seen on public television and online at www.media30.com. He invented Enhanced Television (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Monday Night Football), the most popular form of interactive television in the United States. Mr. Palmer is 1st Vice President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY. He created and chairs the Advanced Media Technology Emmy Awards which honors excellence in the science and technology of the media business. He is the author of one of the most popular television business news blogs, www.EmmyAdvancedMedia.com and he is a weekly columnist for www.Mediapost.com.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Great book for better understanding the new media world.......2007-03-20

I was very pleased with the vast wealth of information provided in this book. It was easy to understand and covered all aspects of the state of the media world!

5 out of 5 stars Television Disrupted.......2007-02-19

This is an excellent overview of all aspects of the television industry and what it is morphing into. I can see this being invaluable to anyone already directly involved in, or on the periphery of this industry.

It is educational as well for those not working in the business, or those looking to invest in the emerging technologies.

5 out of 5 stars TV disrupted is the most intelligent book on current and future TV biz.......2007-02-11

Television Disrupted is an excellent book, well written and intelligently describing a wide range of complex topics surrounding traditional TV and internet delivered video. It does a particularly good job in describing the recent changes and potential future directions of the television industry.

Working within the software industry serving traditional television, people have frequently asked me what they can read to build their knowledge of the TV business. Historically, this has been a tough question to answer as there have been a few discrete magazine articles that were interesting, but I was unware of any books that were current, accurate, or made sense about the future of TV. Television Disrupted has solved this dilema by providing a great overview of the historical television industry as well as the massive changes that are pending as the television business takes advantage of the opportunities provided by internet delivered video.

5 out of 5 stars Must Read for Media Execs.......2006-12-06

This book is a must read for those navigating the changing waters of the media industry. It contains a comprehensive industry overview, insightful analysis of current trends, thought-provoking predictions....and, it's an interesting and entertaining read as well.

5 out of 5 stars Finally!.......2006-09-15

Finally a book about the future of media from someone intimately familiar with its past and present. Palmer has a unique perspective as both an extraordinary successful creative, and an extremely savvy businessman. The insights of his book were earned by doing, not learned by reading, and it distinguishes his perspective from nearly every other.
Petretti's Coca-Cola Collectibles Price Guide
Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • Great resource, but are the prices realistic?
  • Fed Up With This One, Too
  • Too Much HYPE !
  • WHY NO BLOTTERS??
  • Great coverage - but shame-on Allan's pricing...
Petretti's Coca-Cola Collectibles Price Guide
Allan Petretti
Manufacturer: Krause Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

GeneralGeneral | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0873492412

Book Description

Petretti's Coca-Cola Collectibles Price Guide has been called the “bible” of Coca-Cola collectibles—and with good reason! This impressive 11th edition of the hobby's standard reference depicts, describes, and values more Coca-Cola Company marketing, advertising, and promotional items than any other published source. The new volume covers items produced from the 1880s through the 1960s, and includes 96 full-color pages; photos and descriptions of previously undocumented items; up-to-date pricing information; and revised guidelines for collectors. Allan Petretti, long regarded as the foremost authority on the subject, has combined years of experience in the hobby with his proven expertise as a Coca-Cola collectibles dealer and auctioneer to provide the collecting community with the up-to-date information needed to keep pace with this popular and fast-growing hobby.

- Current market prices for every item depicted and described
- New color sections featuring trays, calendars, and other highly sought after items
- Includes additional, recently found rare pieces not shown in any other collector guide
- Contains an expanded and improved bottles section
- New chapters include Coca-Cola candy and Coke's “Diamond Design” from the 1960s
- Offers new guidelines for grading and evaluating Coca-Cola items

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Great resource, but are the prices realistic?.......2003-11-18

I have owned most editions of this book, and as a resource for researching Coca Cola memorabilia, I would have to say it is unsurpassed. I haven't seen any other guides come close in the number of items shown.

I do question the pricing of these items, however. I don't see how everything can continually increase in price from one edition to another, especially when you consider internet sales activity (a very large part of Coca Cola memorabilia sales nowadays). As a collector, I never pay at price-levels shown in this edition, and I certainly do not obtain these prices when I occasionally sell an item off on an internet auction site. I just feel that the prices are a bit inflated. No one could keep track of the huge amounts of Coca Cola memorabilia sales in all venues around the country. I tend to take pricing in guidebooks with a grain of salt, especially, as in this case, when the author is also a major collector. Just a little too much potential for conflict of interest.

2 out of 5 stars Fed Up With This One, Too.......2003-10-04

Right off the bat: I agree that the omission of blotters and assorted other collectibles from this guide is a gaping omission as big as a barn. I hardly use this guide anymore for several reasons:

1) The back index is as bad as they come. Totally incomplete.

2) You want to find a certain tray? Be prepared to bounce from one end of the book to the other looking for what you need. There is no apparent logic to the way this guide is arranged. I'm sure the author felt it was completely logical, but his logic escapes me.

3) The front index is just painful to figure out. There is a usability book out there called "Don't Make Me Think". The author of this Coke guide should study it.

4) Too much rhetoric and opinion about "fantasy" items. I find this section of the guide painful to sift through. Just the facts, please. And then there's the illogical order of everything .

The best that can be said about this guide is that it's big. It is poorly organized and has way too many omissions to be my primary guide. If a 12th edition ever comes out, I'm going to check it out before buying, to see if these problems have been fixed.

I much prefer Wilsons' guide over this one.

1 out of 5 stars Too Much HYPE !.......2003-06-28

A lot of pictures. Prices that reflect nothing on reality. Not one Cleveland Electric Neon Clock. Not one American Time Clock. I have 3 originals hanging in front of me. Missing some of the major buttons. Typical collectors book. Pictures of everything that's out there, except the rare items you buy these books to find out about. Total dissapointment. I have stacks of collector books that have proven useless. There all written by the "authority" on the subject on hand. I think this explains the ... in collecting and the stacks of used books available. If you're going to make a "Know It All" book, than you better know at least %90. Monster let down.

2 out of 5 stars WHY NO BLOTTERS??.......2001-07-28

I'm very dissapointed in this book! After waiting 3 months beyond the original publish date, I find there are no blotter pages. I understand there will be no more blotters in future books, also. As I've been buying and selling blotters based on the Petretti's prices, I feel I cannot give this book a good rating. Also, why do we now have to jump all over the place to find the trays? They used to be simplified in one area.

2 out of 5 stars Great coverage - but shame-on Allan's pricing..........2001-07-06

This book has excellent pictures and wide range of coverage - more than in any of the prior editions.

I did find some inconsistancies in item pricing (Litchfield bottle pg 398 - $70 and same item pg 400 - $55, pg 152 item pcs108.000 - $1300 and same item pcs108.000 pg 87 - $1000). Given that this book has become the "bible" for Coca-Cola collecting - these inconsistancies can cause some problems...

I could overlook some of the pricing errors - heck there's thousands and thousands of items and no one is perfect. But the real problem I have is how high the prices are for all of the items.

Let me get on my soapbox for a minute and conclude by saying that I've been collecting 1890's - 1930's Coca Cola items for the past 20 years and have acquired a pretty extensive collection. I have to say that in my humble opinion the prices that are in this book are dangerously overstated - perhaps in an attempt to help us older guys as we approach retirement. Afterall, we are the one's that acquired the vintage, quality items inexpensively in the early days... In the end I'm not sure its working -- in fact I think the prices have begun to fall!!! One only has to look at the prices being realized on auction sites like ebay to see what I mean - even the "near mint" items don't even come close to the prices in the 10th edition, let alone those in the 11th. Many desirable items have no activity because of greedy sellers that set minimum prices that are out of sync with demand.

I think the high pricing in guides like this actually harms the market, since most collectors can no longer afford the older, quality items. As the old-timers have seen, in the end - the winners are the manufacturers of the recent garbage made in CHINA as it becomes desireable since it's the only thing that's affordable. Vintage-item collectors die-out or begin to get frustrated since they can't find quality merchandise at affordable prices and move on to other hobbies, and there are no replacement collectors coming in.

At this stage, as an old-time collector, I shouldn't complain I guess. Because of Allan's books my items have appreciated substantially. But I still enjoy the hobby - yet I can hardly afford to stay with it. I'm fearful that the number of vintage-item collectors is wanning, and the interest in the hobby is really falling off. If that happens - we will soon find ourselves using Shelly and Helen's old 1970's four volume price guides to buy and sell.

Maybe that wouldn't be so bad afterall...

Advertising Now. Print (Midi Series)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Very Good
  • Outstanding Book.
  • Good resource.
Advertising Now. Print (Midi Series)

Manufacturer: Taschen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Turtleback

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ASIN: 3822840270

Book Description

Ideas that sell: today's most effective and original ads...

The world's sharpest creative minds are in high demand in the advertising world, because making effective ads takes a whole lot more than just marketing know-how. A great ad grabs the viewer's attention and gets the point across in an original, surprising, funny, touching, or even shocking way. Because ads reflect global and regional mentalities, studying them is interesting not only for their selling points but also for what they have to say about their clients and target audiences. This mega-roundup of the world's best contemporary advertisements highlights the work of designers in over 40 countries. Organized by subjects, such as socio-political, food and beverage, cars, technology, and media, the ads are dated and annotated with information on the design agencies, clients, and products. Also included are case studies illustrating, for example, how an ad campaign can be made on a small budget or how an advertisement can be adapted for different cultures. This guide is a must-have for advertising students and professionals, graphic designers, and anyone who's interested in the different ways products are advertised around the world.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Very Good.......2007-08-27

I was interested for this book because of a friend. It is excellent, I recommends for everybody that likes advertising and needs references.

5 out of 5 stars Outstanding Book........2007-07-28

This book has a nice review of the best ads of 2005/2006. I would recommend it for collectors. Very nice quality also on the cover.

5 out of 5 stars Good resource........2007-05-09

I find this to be a very useful, thorough advertising design / marketing student's resource. As with most printed ads in award books or publications, you wish the images were a little larger but the ideas are there as well as the layouts. I'm still going through it with a fine tooth comb and am very happy with my investment.
Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Very interesting
  • Great analysis of a creepy industry
  • What Every Parent Needs to Know
  • Solid argument against the commercially constructed childhood
  • If You Have a Child, Read This Book Immediately
Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture
Juliet B. Schor
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684870568

Amazon.com

Parents will be tempted to read Born to Buy as a kind of contemporary horror story, with ever more sophisticated marketing wunderkinds as Dr. Frankensteins and their children as the relentless monsters they create. Indeed, it's difficult to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the avariciousness, omnipotence, and ingenuity of the advertising industry Juliet B. Schor portrays when it comes to transforming preschool kids into voracious, 'tude-infused consumers. Intermixing research data with anecdotal illustrations, Schor chronicles the rapid development of a once-shackled industry that now markets R-rated movies to 9-year-olds. The mind boggles at the notion that Seventeen magazine's target readership is now pre-teens. While Schor unearths a surplus of information on the effectiveness of advertising, she's not nearly as adept at proposing effective responses. Reacting to the power and creativity of the consumer culture with politically unfeasible regulation and parental diligence is a little like attacking Frankenstein's creature with torches. Still, Born to Buy is an eye-opening account of an industry that is commercializing childhood with remarkable effectiveness and insouciance. --Steven Stolder

Book Description

Marketing targeted at kids is virtually everywhere -- in classrooms and textbooks, on the Internet, even at Girl Scout meetings, slumber parties, and the playground. Product placement and other innovations have introduced more subtle advertising to movies and television. Drawing on her own survey research and unprecedented access to the advertising industry, Juliet B. Schor, New York Times bestselling author of The Overworked American, examines how marketing efforts of vast size, scope, and effectiveness have created "commercialized children." Ads and their messages about sex, drugs, and food affect not just what children want to buy, but who they think they are. In this groundbreaking and crucial book, Schor looks at the consequences of the commercialization of childhood and provides guidelines for parents and teachers. What is at stake is the emotional and social well-being of our children.

Like Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia, and Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, Born to Buy is a major contribution to our understanding of a contemporary trend and its effects on the culture.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Very interesting.......2007-06-22

As a new parent this book opened by eyes to a lot of things I would never have recognized as "marketing" and would not have occurred to me how potentially harmful this culture is the psyche of a child. The data gets a little cumbersome at times, and I skimmed over some of the detail so that I didn't get bogged down in it, but lots of great information along the way.

5 out of 5 stars Great analysis of a creepy industry.......2007-06-08

Advertising is creepy, advertising to children even creepier. This is not news. But a detailed study of the overall effects is. The bulk of this book presents the results of in-depth study of the industry, both through statistical study of two sample groups of children, and through study of the work environments of the advertisers themselves, with interviews of marketers, parents, teachers, and kids. The author takes into account the history of moral panics, the party line of the industry that "kids are savvy," and the specific work that has been done around small aspects of this issue, such as fast food and violent video games (which I love). The author takes an unusually balanced, non-partisan view, sympathizing with the easily-vilified advertisers she worked closely with as well as kids and parents. Her policy recommendations are unlikely to be implemented, but her analysis of the issue is extremely sharp.

5 out of 5 stars What Every Parent Needs to Know.......2007-04-02

This is a book every parent (and teacher like myself)must read. It cuts to the heart of the exploitation of children that is tearing kids away from parents, family and culture. There is no way to protect children from the devious assault of advertising (you may be shocked at the tactics!) unless we are armed with the facts, and this book tells it like it is.

4 out of 5 stars Solid argument against the commercially constructed childhood.......2006-04-23

There's not doubt that corporations, advertisers and marketers do not have your child's best interest at heart. Schor provides a comprehensive account of the what, why and how marketers are targeting your children.

Reading "Born to Buy" will make you want to throw out the TV, disconnect from the Internet, run to the country and home-school your children. Simply put, there's no way to avoid marketing techniques, and your child will succumb to the corporate-commercially constructed childhood. With all the doom and gloom in this book, Schor offers little hope of avoidance...in the end, she does provide a few solutions.

All in all, "Born to Buy" was very informative and an easy, entertaining read. However, some of Schor's original research and statistics caused me to get bogged down. I wasn't looking for scholarly research and did not need to see these statistics. Additionally, Schor seemed to use this book as a chance to take shots at the Bush administration. Although I'm not a fan of this administration and some of the criticism is valid, I do not think Bush started this problem...he's just done nothing to fix it.

All in all, this is well worth the read, especially if you have small children...just skip over the stats near the end, and forgive Schor's attempts at making this political.

4 out of 5 stars If You Have a Child, Read This Book Immediately.......2006-01-04

Simply put . . . if you're not left in shock within the first 50 pages, you haven't been reading. Ms. Schor's account of our nation's perverse youth-directed advertising, market research and media practices is a profound eye-opener. You will be appalled at what our children are being subjected to - not to mention the hyper-sophisticated marketing strategies & manipulations that take place behind-the-scenes, to ensure our children's psychological captivity.

The only deficit to Ms. Schor's work are the, at times, specious and/or factually incorrect claims about macro and micro-level behavior of America's youth. She can be rather quick to jump to conclusions that serve her arguments' ends, while glossing-over counterpoints to highly debatable issues. Case-in-point -- she cites the youth increase is ADD/ADHD diagnoses as "mounting" "evidence of distress among children", while completely sidestepping the highly complex etiology behind the increase in those diagnoses.

She also appears to be somewhat out-of-touch with contemporary culture, to the point that she makes statements like (as appears on page 141), "He's supposed to do his homework, but he has lied and said he doesn't have any so he can spend his time playing a new Gameboy." A statement like that reads like someone saying referring to a car as a "motor carriage"; she more likely meant "...playing a new Gameboy game.", as effectively no child would ever receive a new Gameboy handheld console with enough frequency to refer to their current one as "new". Perhaps I'm being hypercritical, but, if someone is indicting elements of pop culture, I'd prefer their terminology be accurate.

However, an intelligent reader should be able to sift through the missteps and inconsistencies, as the vast majority of the book's content & assertions are reputable, well-researched and well-articulated.

This is A TRUE MUST-READ for all parents, as well as anyone concerned about the impact of media and advertising on their own life.
Best of Flair
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Fleur's flight of fancy.
  • The return of Flair
  • Grab it!
  • dazzling!
Best of Flair

Manufacturer: Rizzoli International Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 084782229X
Release Date: 1999-11-13

Book Description

Literature, clothes, art, travel, decor, theatre, humor, comment, and entertainment...count on FLAIR to bring men and women of taste everywhere a new kind of magazine excitement.

Fifty years after it ceased publication, Flair is still one of the most talked-about and influential magazines ever created. It is remembered for its innovative design and production quality, its superb coverage of the arts, and its intuitive discovery of many artists and writers well before they achieved fame and fortune.

The Best of Flair is beautifully illustrated in full color and produced with all the innovative features of the magazine, including the best pieces from the original twelve issues and a selection of the famous die-cut covers, foldouts, and self-contained booklets. In print once again, The Best of Flair is a cultural event not to be missed.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Fleur's flight of fancy........2002-07-14

These facsimile pages from the twelve issues of Flair are a celebration of Fleur Cowles zest for creativity in the arts. The 338 pages must have been a challenge for the Hong Kong printers, they had to cope with various foldout pages, die-cut holes, different paper stock and bind in several short pages, two concertina foldouts and five sixteen page booklets.

Sumptuous though the book is I feel that Flair is resting in its reputation. To my mind, having worked as a publication art director, the photos, typography and layouts are very conservative and do not show any particular innovative design. Other magazines and designers were much more creative in the fifties, 'Fortune' with Will Burtin, 'Glamour' with Cipe Pineless, 'Harper's Bazaar' with Alexey Brodovitch and 'Vogue' with Alexander Liberman. Certainly the covers with their die-cut holes (sadly only six of the twelve are included) and the bound in booklets were unique to consumer magazines at the time but I think that Flair should be remembered as a magazine concept rather than a magazine full of creativity.

Fleur Cowles writes a short piece about the origins of Flair (handwritten in gold on dark blue paper) but does not give enough detail (I believe each issue involved several printers and binders) and as there were only twelve issues a list of all the articles should have been included. Another reviewer has commented that the high price (reassuringly expensive?) and the cloth covered box the book comes in reflects snob appeal, I agree but I'm still pleased to have a copy.

5 out of 5 stars The return of Flair.......2001-09-11

I first became acquainted with Fleur Cowles' revolutionary 'Flair' magazine during my childhood in the fifties. At that time the publication impressed me with its cultured blend of cosmopolitan sophistication and innovative design, although it didn't escape me that its pages also included a great deal of elitism, snobbery and self-congratulatory arrogance. Although I wasn't fortunate to keep any of the original issues, the magazine became a significant influence in the development of my literary and artistic tastes and in my life-long quest for beauty and elegance. For that I was grateful. So it was a joy to learn that a best-of compilation put together by Fleur Cowles herself had finally appeared. The original 1996 printing sold out before I could manage to acquire a copy and when Rizzoli recently published a second run I quickly got one. This edition has a foreword by writer-socialite Dominick Dunne. Now, is it really worth the rather steep price of [price]? Well... I think that for that kind of money the publishers could have managed to provide us with something much more substantial, for example: a slipcased set containing facsimile editions of all twelve original issues, rather than this comprehensive but ultimately limited look. A complete reprint would have given us the full impression of the range and period feel of a unique magazine, and at this price I think that they could have well afforded to do it. I understand that part of the reason for this expensive price tag is the snob appeal that has always been a part of the Flair mystique and that perhaps this offering is to be regarded as literary caviar for the more discerning (and well-off) among us. On the plus side I must say that the large-format book is lavishly printed, that the articles are indeed very well selected - containing not quite all but much of the best of the short-lived magazine - and that the presentation is very handsome indeed. Several of the covers are reproduced with their distinctive die-cuts and embossing and the book is housed in an elegant cloth-covered box. I still think it could have been more reasonably priced but there it is. Caviar lovers, enjoy it before it disappears again!

5 out of 5 stars Grab it!.......2000-04-06

Get this book. Do anything you have to in order to own it. I paid $250 at the Art Institute of Chicago because I was afraid I would miss out...again. This is a collector's piece if you got the first edition. If not, don't hesitate. It is interesting, intriging, thought provoking, ahead of it's time....and not just for 'creative' types. Something good for everyone.

5 out of 5 stars dazzling!.......1999-10-21

This is the most extraordinary book I've ever owned! I missed out when it was first published as a limited edition and I vowed that if it ever came back,I would grab one. Bravo to Rizzoli Publishers for re-issuing this hard-to-find classic!
The Art of the Fillmore, 1966-1971
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Useful Resource
  • Important historical document found!
  • Superb
  • Art of the FIllmore - Posters 1966-1971
  • A must have for any collector of the Fillmore posters.
The Art of the Fillmore, 1966-1971
Gayle Lemke , and Jacaeber Kastor
Manufacturer: Acid Test
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1888358092

Book Description

Legendary impresario Bill Graham began in January 1966 to commission posters to promote the concerts he was putting on at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium. The poster artists created vivid, irreverent banners that reflected their own sense of poetics, style, and wit. What resulted were signature juxtapositions of design, lettering, and color that represented a brand-new art form. These posters now occupy a place in art history while surviving as treasured artifacts of rock archaeology.

Published in cooperation with Bill Graham Presents, The Art of the Fillmore reunites for the first time in a single volume the original Bill Graham posters created exclusively for the San Francisco and New York Fillmore dance concerts. Indexes cross-reference the posters with the bands they advertised and the poster artists who created them.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Useful Resource.......2007-06-17

The main positives: this is complete, showing the first and most modest flyer, up through the closing of the Fillmore; almost all the flyers are at least partly in color, and they do indeed show the tenor of the era (which I well remember).

The main negative: most of these are shown as a small part of each page; few are relatively large, and I don't recall any being full-page size. So, don't buy this book in the expectation that you're getting a collection of full-page reproductions (even reduced in size from the originals, as they would be).

5 out of 5 stars Important historical document found!.......2007-02-26

This zeros in on what the sixties meant to me. A period of artistic creativity without bounds and limits. One giant leap for mankind...I used to sit in art class and try to copy the lettering in some of these psychedelic posters and it was hard. And to think these San Francisco artist were so prolific as to produce a new one or two every week. I was in awe of this period and love to look back on that scene. Thanks to the Bill Graham estate for compiling this tomb from the ancient ones that came before us.

5 out of 5 stars Superb.......2006-10-08

The psychedelic posters from the late 1960's are classic and very much a part of rock history. These posters were commissioned by Bill Graham, who ran the Fillmore East and West, and other venues. The posters were beautiful and colorful and psychedelic. They were carefully created and used to promote the concerts, but what makes them so amazing is that all this work to promote only a few weekend concerts, which typically featured three or four bands playing on Friday and Saturdays. Never again would such works of art capture the moment. This book tells you about the artists and how they came to become Fillmore artists, and of course full color reproductions of the Fillmore posters are prominently featured through the book. If you love the posters, you'll love the book.

4 out of 5 stars Art of the FIllmore - Posters 1966-1971.......2005-10-26

As a person who attended some of the shows represented by the posters, I loved the book. It brought back many, many memories and inspirations. The book captured the essence of Bill Graham as an entrepreneur and, as it turned out, supporter of the arts.
Not a book for everyone, but if you were there, or you think you wanted to be there, this is a great value.

4 out of 5 stars A must have for any collector of the Fillmore posters........1998-09-19

Now you can see just how beautiful these rock posters are. Each poster in the Fillmore series is presented in full color. An excellent tool to guide you in your purchases, or just help you to enjoy these works of art. Excellent information on the artists and some cool insights into the people and the place that was the Fillmore west.
All-american Ads of the 20s (Midi Series)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • All American Ads - 20s
  • Back to the past
  • Best of series, typographically speaking...
  • Good for stealing from
  • I just couldn't resist this one...
All-american Ads of the 20s (Midi Series)
Jim Heimann
Manufacturer: Taschen
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3822825115

Amazon.com

Taschen's legendary decade-by-decade chronicle of American advertising hits a high point in the book on the 1920s. Its hundreds of coruscatingly colorful Jazz Age advertisements, superbly reproduced on practically bulletproof paper, add up to an irresistible question: why stay this side of paradise when the new consumer culture can send you to heaven right now? Just look up: apple-cheeked cherubs bear steaming flapjacks to a beaming sleeper; fluffy, angel-like Michelin tire men ply the skies; the Certainteed building-supplies giant (a sort of Australopithecus Jolly Green Giant) throws his head back against billowing cumulonimbus clouds. Cecil B. de Mille's poster for his 1933 tsunami-disaster film The Deluge can't match the grandiosity of some of these ads for the humblest household products.

After a short but sweet introductory essay by New York Times designer Steven Heller, editor Jim Heimann organizes the ads by subject: consumer products, fashion and beauty, entertainment, travel, etc. It's gripping to watch sex and status try to outdo each other in selling 1920s cars: the snooty Pierce Arrow associates itself with wealthy Century Club types, while the Ford Fordor stresses the populist $660 price and the flapper struggling to keep the wind from whipping her perilously brief hem over her head. High art rears its lovely head in ads for the Marmon Big 8 racer, powered by a 125-horsepower engine and a lightninglike look derived from Futurist art. Most ads range in a safer esthetic region bounded by retro-Currier & Ives, zesty art deco, and the funny papers. Fear is a great motivator: hunky Marvin loses the girls to halitosis; classy dames subtly judge each other on the quality of the ScotTissue in the bathroom: "Women sense it immediately!" The ads featuring black people fascinatingly demonstrate that even the era's most talented artists couldn't draw blacks because they literally could not see them when they looked at them. This book is a must for any serious student of pop culture—or anybody out for a graphic good time. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

The dawn of American consumerism

Prohibition made liquor illegal and all the more fun to drink. Speakeasies, luxury cars, women's liberation, bathtub gin and a booming economy kept the country's mood on the up-and-up. Women sheared off their locks and taped their chests, donning flapper dresses and dancing the Charleston until their legs gave out. Gangsters flourished in big cities and gangster movies flourished in Hollywood. It was the roaring twenties in America: a singular time in history, a lull between two world wars and the last gas before the nation's descent into the Great Depression. Forging the way into the future like a modern streamliner in a sea of antiquity, advertising in the 20s sought to bring avant-garde into the mainstream—which it did with great success.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars All American Ads - 20s.......2007-07-03

Very typical of this series, plenty of fascinating glossy magazine ads that capture the period as well as anything can. A really impressive series; I've got just about all of them. This one is more foreign than the others since it's period is now bordering on history, rather than just nostalgia.

5 out of 5 stars Back to the past.......2007-05-15

At that time photography was not used in commercials. Beautifully ilustrated and full in text this book a real back to American Life Style in the 20's, throught products that made that age.

5 out of 5 stars Best of series, typographically speaking..........2005-10-11

Lots of hand drawn type. The pictures are happier and more whimsical than the 30's or 40's.

If you're into copying type, don't bother with the 60's -- the type is really boring. The 20's has one has everything from campy to elegant type... I'm looking forward to the release of the 00's-10's (turn of the century).

4 out of 5 stars Good for stealing from.......2005-07-29

As an illustrator and graphic designer I have found this book to be an excellent resource for stealing and pilfering. When I need a typeface, a logo, a color combination or even the layout of the page, Ads of the 20's can't be beat. What was so great about that decade in design? Who knows. But one thing is for sure: it's heck better than the trash on the pages of magazines and catalogues these days.

5 out of 5 stars I just couldn't resist this one..........2005-05-01

I finally caved in and bought this volume in the _All-American Ads_ series, and now I'm going to have to buy the others. I'm doomed.

I'm in love with this book, and there's a lot to love about it. The production values are outstanding--the colors are brilliant, the images as crisp as they can be, and the selection of ads is wonderfully varied. It's a visual treat--Taschen has done it again.

If I do have one complaint, it is that the emphasis is on full-page, full-color ads. While I am a painter and find this book a visual delight (the colors! Oh, joy!), I'm also a geeky cultural historian. I've looked at a lot of magazines from the period--enough to know that some of the most telling ads about the anxieties, attitudes and preoccupations of the time aren't the largest, most sophisticated, or visually striking ones. But since this book has been produced primarily as a showcase for graphic design of the period, and not by hopeless history nerds, I have no trouble giving it five stars.
The Total Package: The Secret History and Hidden Meanings of Boxes, Bottles, Cans, and Other Persuasive Containers
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • What a fantastic surprise!
  • You buy, therefore you must read this book.
  • Packaging Is What We Are
  • Excellent Book!
  • What's up with the icky cover?
The Total Package: The Secret History and Hidden Meanings of Boxes, Bottles, Cans, and Other Persuasive Containers
Thomas Hine
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0316365467

Book Description

In this fascinating excursion through popular culture and marketing history, design critic Thomas Hine decodes the secret language of packaging -- and explains the many subtle ways that boxes, bottles, and cans persuade us to spend our hard-earned money. Tracing the art and science of package design from its emergence late last century to today's most instantly recognizable brand images -- the Campbell's soup can, the Coca-Cola bottle, the Marlboro box, and many others -- Hine has written an essential book for students of popular culture, designers, marketers ... and anyone who goes shopping.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars What a fantastic surprise!.......2007-07-23

I was actually interested in the history of the cigar box when Amazon suggested The Total Package to me. I bought the book as an impulse purchase (despite the cheap yellow cover that the book itself criticises) and I have been very happy that I did. I have not been able to put this book down. This book far surpassed my expectations and has been a wealth of historical facts and connections between the technology of packaging and our civilization.

I have read one strong critique of Hine's book in that it does not go very deep into the psychology of packaging and how it shapes the choices that consumers make. I think that is beyond the point here. Hine's work does an outstanding job of making an interesting historical narrative about packaging. Hine sees the world through the eye of the consumer from the epoch of the proto-package, through the world of boxes and tin cans, and on through cellophane and plastics. That perspective in this book has opened the world up to me.

I cannot recommend this book enough!

5 out of 5 stars You buy, therefore you must read this book........2005-04-11

My community college graphic design students read this book for a class, so I've read it six or seven times now. Every year I look forward to it. It is a wonderful way to get my (mostly) American students to think their role in an economy they've rarely questioned. They learn about how products have been adorned and contained over the centuries and they also learn why great cities thrived with the advancements in packaging, why suburbs keep growing and why cars and groceries are an intertwined pair.

There plenty of insights here for the consumer who wonders why there are so many kinds of toothpaste and why there will always be a battle between Coke and Pepsi. You eat a lot of tuna? Did you know it was canned for the first time because a cannery ran out of sardines? Did you know that canning itself was developed for Napoleon's military campaigns? You know yellow makes products look cheap? You do, but you didn't know you did.

For designers it is an indispensible history that will help you locate your place in the world of business and the American economy.Thomas Hine discusses how research dominates design and how brand managers can wipe out your precious work with a single "Natural!" violator.

5 out of 5 stars Packaging Is What We Are.......2005-01-02

I fell in love with Thomas Hine's The Total Package: The Secret History and Hidden Meanings of Boxes, Bottles, Cans, and Other Persuasive Container from page 1 for this book pulls you into a world that on the one hand is so familiar to you, but on the other hand yet also so unknown, namely the world of package - design and the world of stores.

In his book, Mr. Hine writes about the development of things that I had never even given a thought like the invention of the shopping cart and how it should not take up too much space or the design of the grocery store as a maze, but the book also tells so much more like what colors on the packages say about the products and so on. Mr. Hine even argues that "packaging is what we are" for "packaging mirrors its expected customers, and thus it provides an unfamiliar and provocative perspective about who we are and what we want."

Well, I consider this book to be a true eye-opener and I experience just walking down the aisles in a store as a truly unique experience now for I came to realize that there is a whole theory behind everything I see around me or every aspect of the store.

5 out of 5 stars Excellent Book!.......2004-05-21

A wonderfully interesting book about the history of product packaging. Very thorough and engaging -- I had no idea how important the paper bag was! Rich with insights about consumer behavior in marketplaces and the geographic evolution of the American shopping experience. I go it from the library and wound up buying it as a reference book for years to come!

3 out of 5 stars What's up with the icky cover?.......2001-09-30

What can I say? As a book about packaging, it should take a lesson from itself. Sheesh...!
Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers
  • Okay, but lacking...
  • Brand This!
  • Good concept, but not totally engaging
  • Fresh and Disturbing Take on a Rather Tired Argument
Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers
Alissa Quart
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0738208620
Release Date: 2004-02-17

Book Description

An incisive exposŽ of the underhanded advertising initiatives that target teens-and an exploration of their disturbing consequences.

Generation Y has grown up in an age of the brand, bombarded by name products. In Branded, Alissa Quart illuminates the unsettling new reality of marketing to teenagers, as well as the quieter but no less worrisome forms of teen branding: the teen consultants who work for corporations in exchange for product; the girls obsessed with cosmetic surgery who will do anything to look like women on TV; and those teens simply obsessed with admission into a name-brand college. We also meet the pockets of kids attempting to turn the tables on the cocksure corporations that so cynically strive to manipulate them. Chilling, thought-provoking, even darkly amusing, Branded brings one of the most disturbing and least talked about results of contemporary business and culture to the fore-and ensures that we will never look at today's youth the same way again.

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers.......2006-07-22

The premise of this book seemed very appealing to me. I have always been very opinionated about "Branding" teenagers, and while in high school I refused to wear well known brand-name clothes.
However, once I got into actually reading the book, I was very dissapointed. Quart seemed, at least to me, to merely skim the surface of the problem, filling the pages with statistics and endless lists of numbers but not really pulling much meaning out of any of it.
It also seemed to me that she focused most of her attention on the "rich" kids. I feel that a comparison between priviledged and average teenagers, even severely underpriviledged teens, would have made the book much more interesting. It got especially frustration for me when I reached the chapter titled "Logo U" because (my being fresh out of highschool) I felt that she was exaggerating, or else obviously not expanding her interviews for children NOT from wealthy families. I never took an SAT course, never bought an expensive SAT book but still did perfectly well on my SATs, and got into several excellent colleges.
I understand that the point she was trying to make was about teens getting the "Logo U"s in their minds and refusing to be denied access to them, but I feel the endless droning about SATs offered nothing to feed that point and just made me try to compare the information to my own experience, with little, if any, success.
I apologize for my review being so unorganized. I am no professional writer myself.

3 out of 5 stars Okay, but lacking..........2006-05-25

"Branded" definitely supplies a great deal of information, but Quart seems to fail in synthesizing this information for the reader. Granted, it is fairly easy to understand the points she is trying to make, but she fails to coherently state these points in a memorable fashion. The book is filled with endless examples and statistics, but it is lacking in overal argumentation. She seems to allow the facts and the stats to speak for themselves, without using them to prove specific points. The book is an endless supply of premises, with very few conclusions.

However, I did learn much from this book, and the chapter on teenage plastic surgery was quite shocking and disturbing to me.

Overall, I do recommend this book, if you are able to draw your own conclusions from the facts provided.

5 out of 5 stars Brand This!.......2005-07-07

Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers by Alissa Quart is a quick and fascinating read on the current and constructed intersections between young people, the media and popular culture, corporate agencies, and consumer culture.

What struck me most about Quart's analysis is how RELEVANT it is. Unlike many books published today, the research, reference, and anecdotal material in Branded (published in 2003) is very recent and does not rely too much, or at all really, on the 1990s.

Two shortcomings of the book were the chapter on Self-Branding (I felt Quart could have done more with body piercing, for example) and the last few pages (her final analysis could have been stronger). Despite these weak spots, Quart clearly did her research.

Branded is an interesting and even fun read suitable for parents, teenagers, and educators alike. As a teacher myself, I will definitely refer to it in the future.

3 out of 5 stars Good concept, but not totally engaging.......2005-01-18

Alissa Quart tackles an admirable and potentially fascinating subject in Branded, yet I was left feeling a bit disappointed after finishing the book. I personally found her writing style a bit stilted, and it seems like there is a lot of information and many observations, yet not so much in-depth analysis. The book itself is not extremely long, so there is definitely room for more expansion. There are countless examples of teen branding in movies, fashion, magazines, advertisements, etc., and the author touches on all of these and more, but somehow the book felt more like a bombardment of information than a nuanced analysis. I had pretty high expectations when I read this book (especially from the many positive editorial reviews available), but it was ultimately not as satisfying an experience as I would have hoped.

4 out of 5 stars Fresh and Disturbing Take on a Rather Tired Argument.......2004-09-23

I found it to be an excellent read, and I'm considering using some excerpts from it to spark writing and discussion in a basic writing class that I teach--a class where I'm always concerned that the readings I use are immediate, accessable and read well.

Although the book's subject is the way that companies market to teenagers, in a sense this is only a subset of the author's larger concern with capitalism and consumer culture. She obviously has a left wing take on this subject, although I disagree with earlier reviewers that her presentation is manipulative or unfair. The issue isn't whether or not companies fill a demand (obviously, they do), but about the lengths to which they go to create that demand. How you feel about this obviously depends on your politics, but Quart's viewpoint seems to me to be reasonable and valid.

My problem is that this argument is just sort of tired. I'm just bored of hearing the same critique of "consumer culture" over and over again. What sets this book apart, though is its focus on marketing to children, and, in particular, the passages where Quart presents the kids' lives through their own words. It's pretty disturbing to hear how closely they identify their own self-worth with the products that they use. I'm not just talking about the idea that they have to conform to a certain image in order to be beautiful--again, this is old news. But about how the almost BECOME the brand that they use. When a teenager named Carrie, a fan of MTV's "Total Request Live" describes her loyalty to that show and to the marketing she does for The Backstreet Boys by saying, "I like the Boys as much as my friends and family"--well, there's something really disturbing about that.

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