The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators

When the TV shows you a handsome, athletic, well-dressed man holding* a beer and being clutched by adoring women, do you think "If I drank that beer, I could be clutched by adoring women, too"?Not me: I more often think "I wouldn't drink that cat-pee if you paid me".But apparently a lot of people (males, anyway) do think this way, because the approach sells product. And the person who originated it seems to have been Helen Resor, who used it (with the sexes reversed) to sell Woodbury's Facial Soap in the 1920s.The Odyssey of advertising from it's "Reason Why" début in the 19th century to the date of this book's publication (1984), via such stops as Freudian tunnellings into the consumer's (alleged) subconscious and panics over (putative) brain-washing, makes a fascinating tale; and Mr Fox is the ideal man to tell it, since a) he seems to know the topic backwards and forwards, and b) he really is a terrific writer.Indeed, the first paragraph got me hooked:"Practically everyone dislikes it. Advertising interrupts radio and television programs, crowds editorial matter off the pages of newspapers and magazines, disfigures city streets, defaces the countryside, and even lurks at eye level for tired, vulnerable standees on the subway. Nobody believes it, or at least admits to believing it. It usually appeals to the less agreeable aspects of human nature: greed, vanity, insecurity, competitiveness, materialism. At cocktail parties, people in the advertising business wince when asked what they do for a living.But there it is, one of the dominant forces in twentieth-century America [...]"So if you have slightest interest in the subject-matter, whether you're in the industry or out of it, I thoroughly recommend this book.It's been said that anything can be made interesting by a good writer who really knows his subject; and here's a case in point.*But apparently never — on American TV, anyway — drinking.CONTENTS1. Advertising Prehistory: The Nineteenth Century2. The Age of Lasker3. High Tide and Green Grass: The Twenties4. Depression and Reform5. The Second Boom6. The Creative Revolution7. Real Reform: New Images in the Mirror8. The 1970s: The Cycle Never StopsGlossary, acknowledgments, references, notes & index

Si algo bueno tiene leer una historia contada por un profesor es que el autor es didáctico y se esmera por las descripciones y las referencias. El libro The Mirror Makers es una joya para nosotros los arqueólogos del arte del capitalismo: la publicidad. Habla de los pioneros, sus vidas y obras. Totalmente recomendado. Un detalle: compré mi primer ejemplar en 1998 y 22 años más tarde, compré mi segundo ejemplar para tenerlo bien cuidado.

Great book. Had to read for a class, but glad to learn about this topic. Very fascinating and well written.