While the youth counterculture remains the most evocative and best-remembered symbol of the cultural ferment of the 1960s, the revolution that shoo...
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reviews
Jan 21, 2010
Michael
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This is a rare book where I had a hard time deciding between the "academic" and "popular" history categories. Are the two mutually exclusive? Maybe not in this case - I let the publisher decide for me; the University of Chicago Press is undeniably an "academic" publisher. The author is probably best known as the editor of "The Baffler," which is described on the back of the book as a "cultural criticism journal." His other accomplishments do seem
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May 30, 2009
Brian
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Ever wanted to know why so much of 60s counterculture so easily morphed into yuppie materialism and market-friendly rebellion? This book goes a long way towards an explanation. Rather than employing the standard binary of counterculture/rebellion vs. business/conformity, Frank goes back and shows, in detailed, often hilarious prose, how a great deal of the counterculture and hyperindividualized "rebellion" were, in fact, marketing constructs, created by advertising reps who began to le
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Jan 24, 2010
Brett
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A surprisingly obtuse effort from Thomas Frank. The premise of this book is to challenge the notion that the counter-culture of the 1960s was some kind of organic and pure force that was subsequently co-opted by consumer culture. Instead Frank argues that the counter-culture was in some ways a product of changing advertising techniques; that the values of the counter-culture were pre-figured by changes in advertising.
The Conquest of Cool's style is very academic and somewhat repetiv More...
The Conquest of Cool's style is very academic and somewhat repetiv More...
Jun 09, 2011
John
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I'm such a huge Thomas Frank fan already, and this is one of his earliest books. In fact, it may have even been his dissertation, I'm not sure. I haven't read anything this dryly academic for quite a while, so it was a bit of a slog, but totally worth reading. Interestingly, I got this book before Mad Men ever aired, but didn't get around to reading it until now (after I've watched all of that show that currently exists), so I couldn't help but think about the show while reading the book, but
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May 12, 2010
Jonathan
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When and how did advertising become so hip and snarky? How is it that so many symbols of 60s counterculture, which ostensibly eschewed consumerism, became co-opted and used as tools by the advertising industry? How did the ad agencies manage to take people's growing resentment of consumer society and harness it to create (!) an acceleration of consumption?
What surprised me most was learning that feelings of disillusionment and even disgust with "the mass society" were beco More...
What surprised me most was learning that feelings of disillusionment and even disgust with "the mass society" were beco More...
Feb 03, 2009
Danielle
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I haven't read this in a few years, but it seemed relevant to the topic of authenticity. If I remember correctly, the premise is that our current belief that advertising "co-opted" 60s youth culture is not entirely accurate. Frank argues and provides evidences that advertising influenced the culture of the 60s as much as it borrowed from that culture. I found that idea fascinating and its made me think more critically about how advertising shapes the way we think about ourselves.
Dec 16, 2009
Justin
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This book is an advertising classic that describes how advertisers have taken what is "cool" (which usually involves the trends of non-conformity and rebellion) and packaged it, and re-sold it to the non-conformists. Perfect example: Even hippies shop for clothes that suit their fancy, and at the beginning of the production line is managers that are picking apart the hippie psyche and marketing to that demographic. This concept, which is refered to as co-optation, is not the only topic
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Feb 02, 2011
Jamie
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Enjoyed learning about the transition from the 1950's organizational man advertising, to the 1960's hip advertising. I agree with Frank, since the 1960's hip has always been in! The automobile adverts were especially interesting.
Dec 16, 2009
David
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Although the four-star rating translates into "I loved it," I'm most comfortable with "I liked it," though I don't think that three stars would be fair. I really like Frank's thesis, but it seemed that he spent too much time describingt the various advertisements the book is supposed to analyze. There is analysis, but I really wanted more. It seemed that Frank could have done much more, perhaps examining the ways that the standard narrative of the rise of '60s youth cultur
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Jun 08, 2011
Mary
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This book started with a pretty good premise and then quickly became boring. He spent most of the book on minutia and never graduated to a larger thesis
Dec 17, 2009
Fred
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i haven't read this one in a while, but i passed it while browsing this site for new books to read and wanted to give it a nod, sort of as a thumbs up to the whole tom frank oeuvre. i think the two books after this might be a bit stronger, but this one is excellent as well. as someone who works in the ad industry, i found his first hand account of attending an "account planning" conference accurate and chilling. also, i wanted to use this review to put in a plug for tom as a great pole
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May 23, 2010
Bob
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One of those books that would probably work better as a long magazine article - though the accretion of detail to demonstrate the thesis is impressive, there are times when one is tempted to say "OK, I'll take your word for it".
In this case, all the examples are consistently entertaining, since the subject is 1960s advertising (or, more broadly, the transformation of advertising in the 1960s into what is still the predominant style, you know, the one you're too cool to be taken More...
In this case, all the examples are consistently entertaining, since the subject is 1960s advertising (or, more broadly, the transformation of advertising in the 1960s into what is still the predominant style, you know, the one you're too cool to be taken More...
May 26, 2008
Darren
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The phenomenon of how 'cool' gets sold by advertisers has its roots in 1960s ad agencies like DDB, where Art Directors have guru status and the more conformist/scientific 1950s methodologies are rejected.
The depressing result is that, in the end, it all gets co-opted and re-sold to people who don't know any better.
I enjoyed it, but there is lots of repetition within the case studies and some of the language is more constipated than necessary.
The depressing result is that, in the end, it all gets co-opted and re-sold to people who don't know any better.
I enjoyed it, but there is lots of repetition within the case studies and some of the language is more constipated than necessary.
Oct 26, 2009
Cassandra
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I picked this up after reading a mention on a Mad Men post on Pandagon by a reviewer. It's a great look at the changes in advertising during the 60s. The first half focuses on ads of the 50s while the second half looks at the transition to hip, youth culture oriented ads.
Jul 09, 2007
Joseph
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One can get a much better distillation of the book's thesis in the newer "Nation of Rebels" by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter or from "Commodify Your Dissent" a collection of columns from Frank's seminal journal of political/cultural criticism "The Baffler". In columns, Thomas Frank is one of my all-time favorite political observers, but in books he is often long-winded and repetitive. This is one of those times.
Feb 09, 2010
John
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An incisive and cogent piece of analysis disabusing the traditional Manichean conception of American culture in the 1960s
Aug 24, 2011
Julie
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Well written introspective look at the revolution of advertising in the 1960s.
Jan 16, 2010
Todd
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The Conquest of Cool is an analysis of the transformation of advertising from the 1950's through the 1960's as advertisers learned to co-opt culture as a means of selling their products.
Frank is a very good writer whose other books I've enjoyed. Unfortunately I found the topic of this book so esoteric it was a bit difficult to relate to.
Frank is a very good writer whose other books I've enjoyed. Unfortunately I found the topic of this book so esoteric it was a bit difficult to relate to.
Jul 06, 2008
Josephus
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Really brilliant and eye-opening. A primer on how the PR industry stakes out commercial territory and builds a series of brands into items we subconsciously associate with independence of mind and spirit. Required reading.
Jun 05, 2009
Peter
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An important story, the sort Frank specialized in digging up, before he took aim at neoliberal DC as a fulltime avocation.
Dec 17, 2009
Donnie
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Ever wonder how it is that commercials and stores seem to creep in on what was cool and then re-package it and sell it to anyone with a buck? Well this book explains the origins of that.
Sep 24, 2008
Drew
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Lots of interesting material but Frank's writing in this book was dry. Thank goodness he got better when he wrote What's the Matter with Kansas.
Jul 30, 2008
Andy
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The deep complicity between commodification and the concepts of authenticity and the individual in the US.
Jan 31, 2012
alicatstrut
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Okay point, but there wasn't a whole lot too it and it was hard to stay interested.
Feb 04, 2012
Feb 04, 2012
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