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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Book Description
Click the reviews tab at the left to see reviews of this book
For additional materials, please contact the author directly: www.mariekedemooij.com
"Marieke de Mooij shows that American theories of consumer behavior do not necessarily apply abroad. Her national consumption data are an unobtrusive measure of national cultures. She has made marketing students discover culture, and her work should make cross-cultural psychologists discover the consumer as an informant."
--Geert Hofstede, Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation, the Netherlands
Consumers worldwide are not the same, and the differences in consumer behavior between countries are increasing. Because all aspects of consumer behavior are culture-bound, and not subject merely to environmental factors but integrated in all of human behavior, there is an increased need to identify and understand this integration and its impact on global marketing and advertising.
Consumer Behavior and Culture: Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising is the first book to present an empirically based model for integrating culture with consumer behavior.
Consumer Behavior and Culture reviews the myths of global marketing and explores the concept of culture and models of culture. It provides empirical evidence of convergence and divergence in consumer behavior and covers various psychological and sociological aspects of human behavior used for explaining consumer behavior. The book reviews and discusses cultural variations of these aspects across the world.
reviews the myths of global marketing and explores the concept of culture and models of culture. It provides empirical evidence of convergence and divergence in consumer behavior and covers various psychological and sociological aspects of human behavior used for explaining consumer behavior. The book reviews and discusses cultural variations of these aspects across the world.
Key Features:
* A cultural exploration of the various psychological and sociological aspects of human behavior, such as concept of self, personality, group influence, motivation, emotion, perception, and information processing
* A discussion of consumer behavior theories and cultural variations from around the world
* Coverage of a number of consumer behavior domains, including explanations of differences in consumption and ownership, all based on empirical evidence
* In addition to anecdotal evidence, the consequences of branding and marketing communication strategy are presented and analyzed
Perfect for students and practitioners in marketing and advertising, this book is designed to meet the needs of those wishing to view consumer behavior from a global cultural perspective. It is also ideal for those emphasizing the role of minority groups as well as increased multicultural sensitivity in their marketing and advertising strategies.
Customer Reviews:
Handbook for global marketers.......2004-02-09
Consumer Behavior and Culture-Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising is a handbook for all global marketers and the researches that did the cross cultural research especially in consumer behavior. As the author, Marieke de Mooij is the fellow of Hofstede, in this book therefore, mostly the Hofstede: Five Dimensions of National Culture is fully explained and utilized. De Mooij tried to explain every aspect in consumer behavior by these dimension, especially individualism vs collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance. For marketers, understand these three dimensions can understand the characteristic of the value, lifestyle and even the attitude towards the objects.
This book unlike other consumer behavior textbook, it does not only describe the basic consumer behavior theories and models but also have lots of application and more focus on culture aspects.
De Mooij also provides lots of examples and successful cases to illustrate the concept. And some positioning maps are also used especially the country positioning. She has tried to use the map to illustrate the culture feature in different countries, such approaches can help marketers to compare the distance among different countries and learn how to adjust and localize their strategies in specific market.
Moreover, the author specific designs some chapters for global marketers. In those chapters, marketers can learn the characteristic of that market customers, and how to base on that unique feature to design the marketing strategies i.e. brand, product and price and advertising strategies i.e. media.
For researcher, this is a good book, the author has described the research methodology for culture-comparison, other than that, she has collected lots of secondary data to support the new data, therefore, the knowledge provided is very comprehensive. In every category like clothing, coffee and automobile, she also mentioned some tips for researchers to do research in that specific area. Some limitations of existing research findings are raised, which help the researches to remind some major limitations and the room for future research.
Overall speaking, the content is very comprehensive, and the description and analysis are good enough for readers to understand the concepts. Moreover, the main points and the sub points are clearly defined, which bring lots of convenient to the readers.
In conclusion, Consumer Behavior and Culture is a handbook for marketers and researchers, and at this moment, there is no other books can substitute it.
Book Description
Internationally Acclaimed Branding Guru Challenges Corporations: "It's Time to Act as Good Citizens"
What have today's brands in common with politicians? - They need to take an active, positive role in people's lives in order to be elected —locally and globally, says Marc Gobé, the founder of the widely successful Emotional Branding concept. Today's all-powerful, post-hedonistic consumers expect a deepening level of emotional commitment and social responsibility from the brands that they choose. In CITIZEN BRAND, an evolvement of his revolutionary EMOTIONAL BRANDING concept, the internationally acclaimed branding guru tells corporations how to become the socially relevant, caring community members that are elected in today's consumer democracy.
Three quarters of consumers would vote for corporate community involvement and ethical business practices, say recent polls. Yet while "cause marketing" programs abound, few corporations truly understand the emotional power of the "Citizen Brand" approach, argues Marc Gobé. Using brands like Starbucks and The Bodyshop and Home Depot as examples, CITIZEN BRAND reveals how companies can create strong and deep partnerships with people in America and across the globe by enriching their lives in creative and truly relevant ways.
The bursting dot.com bubble, anti-globalization protests in Seattle and Genoa, an economic slowdown, and the September 11 tragedy. . .the events of the past three years have changed dramatically what consumers expect from today's brands: they seek emotional support and orientation an increasingly complex, strenuous reality. Getting this right requires an intimate understanding of one's customers and their deepest values, says Marc Gobé. CITIZEN BRAND reveals how smart companies have responded to this reality check by treating their customers--and employees—with a new humanistic, emotional sensitivity. Nucor has made it a point to not lay off any of its people in the face of recession; other companies have followed the example of The Bodyshop by establishing community programs for customers and employees; Coca-Cola is using its trucks in Africa to bring medication and education to local customers.
As Gobé underlines, CITIZEN BRAND is not a comprehensive form of philantrophy or a new business strategy, but an inevitable consequence of global change: ". . .in a global world influenced more and more by local politics, religious upheaval, and social awareness, the role of businesses will change in a dramatic way. The need to reassess one's corporate responsibility is critical in a changed world."
Customer Reviews:
"Interesting" but not "good"........2004-05-20
I found this book less brilliant than his previous title ¡§Emotional branding¡¨. Gobe is simply repeating himself in a loosely knit 10-chapters format. There are many interesting case studies, but the author does not focus them tight enough to make those examples relevant to the chapter title. For instance in chapter 2 he talks about trust and cause marketing, but he cannot solidly tie the two together; as trust does not always equal well-carried cause marketing campaigns, what IS trust in terms of branding? What are the mechanisms of ¡§trust¡¨? I think he should give us a global definition before diving into the subject.
There are numerous examples of such poorly related text in the book, I would advise you to read his first book ¡§Emotional branding¡¨ and skip this one.
Shifting into the future, the right way!.......2003-05-04
A book, a philosophy, a plan for the future - and one after my own heart...
In an age where many business fear for the future, claiming that customers are jaded, and even anti-business, Gobé presents the situation in more than a constructive manner, he gives a hopeful one.
Rather than throwing his hands up to the sky, pointing to groups that plan 'Don't Buy Anything' days as the end of it all, he shows us that commerce is not over, it is evolving.
More than heart-warming, I think he is right. (He sure has described me as a consumer!) And I know I want to run my business by these ethics, goals & philosophies.
However, his message is more than an uplifting moment, or one of personal identification for me - he gives concrete examples of how businesses can connect with today's customers.
If you can invest in only one branding book this year, this is the one to get.
A definite winner!.......2002-11-05
A fantastic and very useful book--a must read for any marketing professional today. This book is about far more than how to build effective "cause marketing" campaigns. It is nothing short of a revolutionary/revelatory new approach to business in our difficult era!
Gobe is a branding visionary with a very insightful and inspiring approach to building strong brands. While I enjoyed and appreciated his last book, Emotional Branding, I am even more impressed with this one. He proposes here a whole new shift in thinking that is of course-- in a post-Enron, et al.. world-- very a propos today.
He argues that a holistic, consumer-centric and ethics grounded approach to both business and marketing strategies is not only "good" but also good business--it's the new expectation (and biggest opportunity as many will fail to recognize the changed landscape...). This is something I have believed strongly and observed in action for many years as a marketing executive for a global corporation with major consumer brands and it's rewarding to see these ideas put forth in such a fresh and engaging manner.
But besides giving us a provocative new way of looking at marketing strategies from a big picture perspective, the book also has a lot of value from a very practical, hands on point of view. It is full of useful information, such as highly original insight into the latest consumer trends and demographics research, lots of well thought out and unsually interesting case studes and examples of what the most innovative branding professionals are doing. Most of all, the book gives marketers a practical detailed process for how a brand can become a "Citizen Brand" for consumers today and continues the theme of his last book giving insight on how marketers can touch consumers on an emotional level that will inspire that rarity of all rarities--brand loyalty!
Book Description
Marketing in the early 21st century is dominated by two approaches, neither of which is visible to the naked eye: the use of data to define and shape human affairs into machine-readable form and the effort to create and sustain ongoing two-way relationships with customers. The former is one way human life is being subjugated to the regime of the machine; the latter is one way the individual may one day emerge from within the datascape. A post-modern perspective is used to reveal both the "kaleidoroscope" of data and the "raw immaterials" of relationships in two companion essays.
Customer Reviews:
Rebecca Nailed It.......2007-03-18
Rebecca's review is spot-on. I could read this book several times and get something new out of it each time. Ellis succinctly captures the changes in consumer-marketer interaction and the new 21st century value exchange and does a great job of putting it in historical and philosophical context.
Big Thoughts on Marketing .......2007-03-09
Most books on business (particularly those by self-proclaimed "gurus") seize on a single idea. With terrier-like tenacity they explain it, illustrate it, present case studies of it, then explain it yet again, until a readers feels she's entered some sort of textual version of "Groundhog's Day."
"Marketing in the In-Between," takes the opposite approach. It packs so many clusters of thought, ideas, revelations and connections on every page, the reader will need to repeatedly dip in to glean all the thoughts. It challenges readers to truly ponder and to question the basic precepts and practices upon which marketing is based.
Amazon.com
In his book-length essay The Conquest of Cool, Thomas Frank explores the ways in which Madison Avenue co-opted the language of youthful '60s rebellion. It is "the story," Frank writes, "of the bohemian cultural style's trajectory from adversarial to hegemonic; the story of hip's mutation from native language of the alienated to that of advertising." This appropriation had wide-ranging consequences that deeply transformed our culture--consequences that linger in the form of '90s "hip consumerism." (Think of Nike using the song "Revolution" to sell sneakers, or Coca-Cola using replicas of Ken Kesey's bus to peddle Fruitopia.)
This is no simplistic analysis of how the counterculture "sold out" to big business. Instead, Frank shows how the counterculture and business culture influenced one another. In fact, he writes, the counterculture's critique of mass society mimicked earlier developments in business itself, when a new generation of executives attacked the stultified, hierarchical nature of corporate life. Counterculture and business culture evolved together over time--until the present day, when they have become essentially the same thing. According to Frank, the '60s live on in the near-archetypal dichotomy of "hip" and "square," now part of advertising vernacular, signifying a choice between consumer styles.
Book Description
While the youth counterculture remains the most evocative and best-remembered symbol of the cultural ferment of the 1960s, the revolution that shook American business during those boom years has gone largely unremarked. In this fascinating and revealing study, Thomas Frank shows how the youthful revolutionaries were joined—and even anticipated —by such unlikely allies as the advertising industry and the men's clothing business.
"[Thomas Frank is] perhaps the most provocative young cultural critic of the moment."—Gerald Marzorati, New York Times Book Review
"An indispensable survival guide for any modern consumer."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Frank makes an ironclad case not only that the advertising industry cunningly turned the countercultural rhetoric of revolution into a rallying cry to buy more stuff, but that the process itself actually predated any actual counterculture to exploit."—Geoff Pevere, Toronto Globe and Mail
"The Conquest of Cool helps us understand why, throughout the last third of the twentieth century, Americans have increasingly confused gentility with conformity, irony with protest, and an extended middle finger with a populist manifesto. . . . His voice is an exciting addition to the soporific public discourse of the late twentieth century."—T. J. Jackson Lears, In These Times
"An invaluable argument for anyone who has ever scoffed at hand-me-down counterculture from the '60s. A spirited and exhaustive analysis of the era's advertising."—Brad Wieners, Wired Magazine
"Tom Frank is . . . not only old-fashioned, he's anti-fashion, with a place in his heart for that ultimate social faux pas, leftist politics."—Roger Trilling, Details
Customer Reviews:
How do you co-opt a revolution you invented?.......2006-09-02
Being familiar with Thomas Frank's cultural criticism of the 1990s (see his brilliant _One Market Under God_, along with the two _Baffler_ anthologies), when I saw the title of this volume I immediately assumed it was yet another expose of how the culture industry co-opts the trends and fashions of genuinely cool youth. I was completely wrong -- what Frank has done is far more fascinating.
In this volume, Frank goes back to the "template" of all modern stories of revolution, the 1960s, and takes a look at things from the point of view of the corporate executives. What he finds is shocking: executives weren't trying to co-opt the counterculture language of revolution, they were actually there first! They genuinely believed in shaking things up and continued to promote these ideas even when the public wasn't into them.
Growing out of his dissertation, the book is a little more dry than some of Frank's other work, but his brilliant prose shines through the academic form. Through meticulous historical research, excerpts from period documents and books, and interview with the players involved, Frank reconstructs the story of the generation, telling the tales of ad executives who quit The Organization to pursue their creative whims and the fashion planners desperate to kill the gray flannel suit. The result is a book that changes the way you think about the generation.
Be Wise, Be Meaty, Be Frank.......2005-08-14
For those who occasionally wonder 'what are they thinking?' when confronted with the effulvia of advertising, Thomas Frank provides a cogent and often hilarious explanation that is spot on from beginning to end. It is hard to imagine a better reference for those hoping to understand the 'mind' of the businessman, whose thankless task is to penetrate the cacaphnous clutter of the affluent society (even as its affluence groans under the incubus of credit card debt and shrinks in the vise of job loss). Of course the ingenius solution is to associate the supernumerary product with the alienation of the customer, and thus is born the 'we're hip and we're on your side' approach that has been bombarding viewers every four minutes for the last thirty-five years, and whose prototypical consequence is a herd of middle class vagabond children gaily emblazoned with Coca Cola logos.
For those with a lingering romantic idea of human potential, the concept of rebellion through consumption may seem every bit as transparent as a USP, but the truth about advertising seems to be identical with the truth about television and is embodied in the Seinfeld Principle: if you run it long enough people will buy into it.
Meanwhile, those of us who are alienated (or baffled) by the inanities of our age have Thomas Frank for solice. Apparently still in his thirties, Frank has written three of the most entertaining and insightful books of the last twenty years, and while the other two (One Market Under God and What's The Matter With Kansas) have made him personna non grata among toadying intellectuals, even they have been unable to find fault with this one, which a person can safely read in public without coming in for special scrutiny as a potential security risk.
Great Book.......2002-08-08
An excellent examination of consumer culture and the way that corporate America has tried to deal with, understand, and co-opt youth culture (or did youth culture co-opt advertising?) Frank gets to the bottom of it all in an always entertaining look at advertising from the Madison Avenue years through the sixties. His examinations of various ad campaigns - such as Volvo who insisted in their ads that their cars were ugly and at least not as filled with defects as the cars they used to make - are insightful and well researched. In fact, this book is a necessary primer for anyone doing research on youth culture. It helped to change the way that I think about these issues and has become a text that I refer to often.
Great history of advertising..........2002-03-13
This was Tom Frank (founding editor of the Baffler, for those in the know) University of Chicago dissertation on advertising, and is absolutely fascinating. Frank's main focus is a Frankfurt School/classical Marxist critique of how the early 60s anti-advertising of people like Bill Bernbach (the guy responsible for the classic early VW beetle ads) worked to help create our ideas of 60s counterculture. As such, it's of interest to anybody fascinated by cultural theory, 20th c. American history, or corporate cultures and advertising. However, it's also useful to anybody involved in marketing, planning or advertising (even if your political views aren't of the college Marxist with capitalist parents school), simply because it's just a great history of advertising in the 20th century, and shifting attitudes towards advertising as a profession, from the idea that advertising was a hard science (propounded by David Ogilvy and others) to the idea that advertising was "an art." Most importantly, it's a fantastic read-Tom Frank is a great writer with a fantastic turn-of-phrase, and is better thinker than 90% of academics in the humanities today.
..........2001-04-12
in fact, Frank's point is that advertising did NOT necessarily co-opt counterculture. if he labors over anything, it's his assertion that the Creative Revolution in business practically preceded the existence of a widespread counter-culture movement. as far as his scorn, it was rather obviously directed only at the baby-boomers and historians with bad memories...the ones who insist that 60s youth culture was completely non-commercial, the ones who need to believe in The Man (especially the man in the gray suit).
i thought that the book was extremely engaging. frank is very insightful, and his writing is entertaining. i laughed a lot, and said, "Right, exactly!" so many times. i did not get any sense that frank had any real trouble with the conquest of cool or even consumer culture. he develops his thesis so precisely that there was no room for censure. as far as offering a solution--the book doesn't present any Problem to be solved. it's an examination of the relationship between commercial and counter culture. Most importantly, it's a rethinking of that relationship through the lens of the late 50s and 60s.
Average customer rating:
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The Image Factory: Consumer Culture, Photography and the Visual Content Industry (New Technologies/New Cultures)
Paul Frosh
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ASIN: 1859736424 |
Book Description
Quietly but implacably, powerful transnational corporations are gaining power over our visual world. A 'global, visual content industry' increasingly controls images supplied to advertisers, marketers and designers, yet so far the process has, paradoxically, evaded the public eye. This book is the first to expose the interior workings of the visual content industry, which produces approximately 70% of the images that define consumer cultures. The corporate acquisition of major photographic and film archives, as well as the digital rights to much of the world's fine art, is having a profound effect on what we see. From stock photography to new technologies, this book powerfully engages with the historical and cultural issues relating to visual culture and new media. How has stock photography, the system of 'renting out' ready-made images, transformed the role of marketing and advertising? What impact are digital technologies having on the practices of industry professionals? How have software programs such as Photoshop enabled professionals to play 'God' with photographs and how does this influence our belief in the integrity of images?Combining original research on stock photography with a new theoretical take on the circulation of images in contemporary culture, The Image Factory provides a comprehensive and in-depth exploration of industrialized commercial photography, its uses and abuses.
Book Description
The 25th anniversary edition of a sociology classic-a groundbreaking look at the history of advertising and consumer culture as defining forces in American life.
Captains of Consciousness offers a historical look at the origins of the advertising industry and consumer society at the turn of the twentieth century. For this new edition Stuart Ewen, one of our foremost interpreters of popular culture, has written a new preface that considers the continuing influence of advertising and commercialism in contemporary life. Not limiting his critique strictly to consumers and the advertising culture that serves them, he provides a fascinating history of the ways in which business has refined its search for new consumers by ingratiating itself into Americans' everyday lives. A timely and still-fascinating critique of life in a consumer culture.
Customer Reviews:
Instrumental in broadening prospective .......2007-08-28
Stuart Ewen. Captains of Consciousness. Basic Books, 2001
Preface says that some reviewers labeled the book as "Marxist". They definitely missed the point. Feeling sympathetic towards Proletariat isn't Marxism exclusive trademark. Yet the book definitely lacks the depth of economic analysis and feeling of history (including actual class struggle) to fit the best standards of historical materialism. H. Zinn's "People's History of the USA" is much more monumental in collecting the social and economical realities of the US of the period.
As M. Schudson rightfully noted, the author of "Captains" too often takes the bluffing of second-rate admen at face value as the industry's real best practices. All this comes under obvious ideological inspiration of Marcuse.
Still the book seems to be the only study of advertising history that takes into consideration the working-class, including immigrants. Virtually all others suggest that there was no life outside of "Middle Class America".
Thus "Captains" are the must for any researcher or student in advertising sociology who wants to broaden his/her prospective.
Social Commentary from a Marxist .......2007-03-27
To appreciate this book you need have at least a general understand of the work of Karl Marx because the book is written from a Marxist perspective. From this 'perspective' the author is able to draw certain conclusions about American society (or a capitalist society) in which a reader may mistakenly infer as to the intent of the actual participants of that society. Its one thing to describe a particular outcome as a result of advertising and it's another thing to say that this outcome is the actual intent of advertising companies and businesses. A casual reader (or biased reader) may have trouble distinguishing between the two. The book title is a little misleading, saying `Captains' of Consciousness when the author does not focus on any 'specific' advertising company or business. The book cover is also a little misleading, with a picture of the store front NikeTown with heavily armed police. The book was written in 1976, no where in the book does it mention the Nike company and book contents does not convey any sense of power struggle thingy going on. Overall, it's an okay book for those who are familiar with the work of Marx and sociology in general. If you are not, then you would have no understanding of where the author is coming from or really the conclusion he is making. To sum I would say that is book is really just social commentary from a Marxist.
Here are some notes I've taken from the book (word for word) that I feel are most meaningful to me:
Modern advertising was concentrating upon a type of copy aiming to make the reader emotionally uneasy, to bludgeon him with the fact that decent people don't live the way he does
Mass industry, requiring a corresponding mass individual, cryptically named him "Civilized American" and implicated his national heritage in the marketplace. By defining himself and his desires in terms of the good of capitalist production, the worker would implicitly accept the foundations of modern industrial live. By transforming the notion of "class" into "mass", business hoped to create an "individual" who could locate his needs and frustrations in terms of the consumption of goods rather than the quality and content of his life (work).
In an attempt to massify men's consumption in step with the requirements of the productive machinery, advertising increasingly offered mass-produced solutions to "instinctive" strivings as well as to the ills of mass society itself. If it was industrial capitalism around which crowded cities were being built and which had spawned much of the danger to health, the frustration, the loneliness and the insecurity of modern industrial life, the advertising of the period denied complicity. Rather, the logic of contemporaneous advertising read, one can free oneself from the ills of modern life by embroiling oneself in the maintenance of that life. A 1924 ad for Pompeian facial product argued that: unless you are one woman in a thousand, you must use powder and rouge. Modern living has robbed women of much of their natural color.. taken away the conditions that once gave natural roses in the cheeks
The advertising which attempted to create the dependable mass of consumers required by modern industry often did so by playing upon the fears and frustrations evoked by mass society - offering mass produced visions of individualism by which people could extricate themselves from the mass - mass pseudo-demassification
Appealing to dissatisfaction and insecurities around the job, certain advertisements not only offered their products as a kind of job insurance, but intimate that through the use of their products one might become a business success - the capitalist notion of individual "self-fulfillment".
Much of American industrial development punctuated by attempts to channel thought and behavior into patterns which fitted the prescribed dimensions of industrial life
If you are advertising any product never see the factory in which it was made. Don't watch the people at work. Because when you know the truth about anything, the real, inner truth - it is very hard to write the surface fluff which sells it.
Speaking of seeming purposelessness of American industrial life itself, this lack of purpose in life has an effect on consumption similar to that of having a narrow life interest, that is, in concentrating human attention on the more superficial things that comprise much of fashionable consumption. The mass-produced goods of the marketplace were conceived of as providing and ideology of "change" neutralized to the extent that it would be unable to effect significant alteration in the relationship between individuals and the corporate structure. "Fatigue" with the futility of modern life might, if all other avenues of change are eradicated, be channeled toward a "fatigue... with apparel and goods used in one's immediate surroundings".
The concept of consumption as an alternative to other modes of change proliferates within business literature of the twenties. Given the recent history of anticaptialist sentiments and actions among the working class, the unpleasant possibility of "deeper changes" gave flight to a more pacified notion of social welfare that emanated from comsumerization. Recognizing the irreversibility of frustration among those who felt trapped in their surroundings, change would be "the most beneficent medicine in the world to most people", mass consumption is offered as a means of acting out such impulses within a socially controllable context. "To those who cannot change their whole lives or occupations, even a new line in a dress is often a relief. The woman who is tired of her husband or her home or a job feels some lifting of the weight of life from seeing a straight line change into a bouffant, or a gray pass into beige". The basic issues of industrial capitalism were fractionalized, isolated and reduced to trivialities in her formula. "Most people do not have the courage or the understanding to make deeper changes".
The logic of using consumption and mass leisure as ameliorations for boredom and social entrapment was not merely an underlying trend in advertising
Fear in itself is paralyzing; it robs one of the power of action. No one buys anything through fear, but rather through the instinct of self preservation or some other reaction that is almost inseparable from fear
AGAIN, if you don't understand what the hell the author is taking about then I don't recommend this book to you.
A thought provoking analysis of advertising/consumer culture.......2005-04-27
Ewen's book "Captains of Consciousness" is an insightful analysis of the rise of consumerism through advertising. He starts by covering the technique and effects of mass production. Of course workers were not pleased with their dehumanizing roles in line production that made them easily replaceable. Where industrialization standardized the means of production, there was a need to modernize the consumption end of the deal; this is where advertising came into play. The book focuses on the 1920's during the advent of mass advertising. Advertising provided a desire in the public to comsume a variety of new productions as well as ameliorated a society who had become increasingly upset with the wage system. Much of the later part of the book deals with how advertising was primarily meant for women, who had become the managers of the household and responsible for most consumption. Overall, the book is well worth the read, even though it is over 25 years old. Many of the advertising tactics that Ewen speaks of, such as the youthful ideal, are still present today.
Why are 3rd World nations far less materialistic? Read This........2003-12-07
If you've ever spent a considerable amount of time living in a 3rd World nation like I have, this book can help you understand why the USA has such an intense consumer culture which is almost unheard of in other such countries. I'm a big fan of capitalism, and this book makes a lot of sense. It's not a critique of capitalism nearly as much as an explanation of how it can shape cultures.
Consumer society revealed.......2001-08-24
This book is a penetrating analysis of the origins of our mass-culture, consumerist society. First, the author debunks the notion that consumerism was a natural technological development or clearly represents progress.
The author makes evident that the captions of industry sought to exert control over the entire social milieu beginning in the 1920s. Their foremost project was to define American life as consumerism. Consumption was marketed as far more than acquiring the essentials of life; it was a means to transform one's life: to achieve social esteem, to escape otherwise mediocre, humdrum lives. It was very much an individualistic approach to life in contrast to the traditional focus on small communities or extended families.
Industrialism was not easily swallowed by workers of the 19th and early 20th century. Traditional social bonds became irrelevant in factory production. Also under scientific management work was systematically deskilled and redefined by management. The strike wave of 1919 and the "Red Scare" of the early 20's convinced economic elites to set upon a course of pacification of discontented citizens in addition to measures of suppression.
The advertising in the 20's tried to convince that the mass production of consumable items was of tremendous benefit to society. The "freedom" of workers as consumers to transform their lives more than offset the actual loss of control over work processes. Every effort was made to see that mass-culture goods penetrated and hence defined all areas of life. Non-acceptance of that corporate-defined world was not viewed kindly. Virtually all non-market activity was cast as secondary, if not illegitimate. Buying superceded voting as the means to social remedy. Even families became purchasing units.
By the 1950s the transformation of the US to a consumerist culture was virtually complete. The penetration of corporate-owned television into all households ensured that alternatives to consumerism would not surface which was a continuation of the trend of centralization of all media outlets. The free-market and free trade ideologues of the 1990s are merely following in those same footsteps.
Though written 25 years ago, this book remains relevant today. More recent authors such as Kuttner, Schiller, Lindblom, or Frank can only add to what Ewen has already said.
Book Description
Reviewing key contemporary issues and debates about consumption, this volume portrays and assesses the varied and complex intersections of consumption and everyday life. Throughout, the contributors show how cultural consumption involves a range of active, creative, and critical practices. The rich and idiosyncratic nature of local consumption practices is illustrated through cases from different parts of the world. Through such cases, the contributors show the varying balance between constraint and creativity, links between consumption and production, and the patterns that shape access to symbolic and material resources. Consumption takes place in the context of everyday lives, which take place in space: questions of place and identity, the privatization of the home, and the linking of local everyday practices with broader, global processes are explored. Particular attention is given to the media and new communication technologies as points of overlap and exchange between the local and the global, between domestic consumption and the public sphere. The book is written in an accessible style, and each chapter includes questions and activities for students, and selected readings. The book will be of interest to students and lecturers across a range of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, communication, cultural and media studies, and geography.
Book Description
Taking Up Space is a sociological memoir about being fat and the physical, emotional and economic costs of trying to pass for thin in a culture that stigmatizes fat people. Making her own life a case study, medical sociologist Pattie Thomas, Ph.D., with the help of her co-author and husband Carl Wilkerson, M.B.A., outlines how stigma limit and shape the life chances of all people and are supported within culture. Through narrative text, poetry, essays, photos and drawings, Dr. Thomas shares her own process and demonstrates how a sociologically examined life can be a source for personal growth. An extensive resource section challenges both the popular reader and the academic to further exploration. Kathleen LeBesco, author of Revolting Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity, has called Taking Up Space "a road map through the minefield of the 'war on obesity.'" Foreword by Paul Campos, author of The Obesity Myth (published in paperback as The Diet Myth).
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful book!.......2006-01-29
This book is so full of information that it is an education in itself. I wish anyone with an opinion on "obesity" would read it. It might actually change one's perspective.
We all deserve regard and respect. Dr. Thomas states her case clearly and well. I'm grateful to her for writing this book.
Janet
We All Have The Right To Our Own Space!.......2005-12-30
Taking Up Space is a poignant saga of how one woman has come to grips with being large in a society where "thin" is worshiped as the ideal. Dr. Pattie Thomas uses her brilliant writing style to share the pain of her battles. Not just the emotional and psychological pain of being large in a small world, but the actual physical pain of two chronic diseases that she has to contend with. In Taking Up Space, Dr. Thomas often refers to herself as the reluctant warrior. But as she shares her battle with personal weight issues; as she bravely takes on the societal and medical stigmas that daily drain people of size, she truly becomes a brave sumo warrior who leads the way into battle against the poison darts that are constantly hurled at us.
Taking Up Space:How Eating Well & Exercising Regularly Changed My Life.......2005-11-03
Dr. Thomas has written one the finest & certainly one of the most honest books on the subject of living fat in this fatphobic American culture that I have ever read, & I have been involved in fat acceptance for over 25 years, & have read every book I could find on the related subjects of fat & health, fat & legal rights, fat & social acceptance, etc. Dr. Thomas tells us what this "war on obesity" is like from the inside & she shows us the cost, in terms of time, money, health, & self-esteem, of trying to fight one's biology. I identify deeply with her struggle to accept her naturally fat body & learn to live in peace with & even to love it, as it has also been my struggle. I particularly identify with the multiple issues faced by those of us who are fat & disabled, & those who are aging (as indeed we all are) in a culture which so worships youth & its extremely dysfunctional view of health & beauty.
Taking Up Space will be one of the most valued & appreciated volumes in my personal library & it will be re-read many times. I applaud Dr. Thomas's honesty & I admire her courage. It is my sincere hope that many people will read this important book & that many minds & eyes will be opened & that the understanding between fat people & the thin world will be deepened. We all need to do whatever we can to explode these harmful myths, to end fat hatred & to call a ceasefire in this pointless & very destructive war on the bodies, souls, & psyches of the majority of our citizens.
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