Adcult USA

by James B. Twitchell

We see them in flashing kaleidoscopes of colour and sound on television, splashes of neon on billboards, on glossy spreads in newspapers and magazines. We hear the peppy jingles on the radio. We even find them being sneaked past us as underwriting on public television and radio. Advertising is like a song Americans can't get out of their heads. A spirited exploration of the culture created when advertising becomes not just a central institution, but the central institution.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, College

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 1996

About the author

James B. Twitchell is an American author and former professor of English, known for his work on advertising, consumer culture, and popular media. He earned his BA, MA, and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A tenured professor at the University of Florida, Twitchell resigned in 2008 following allegations of plagiarism. Despite this, he remains recognized for his engaging writing style and provocative insights into American cultural and consumer behavior.

Reviews

[Mikey B.]

This book is not a critique of advertising; it is a glorification of it!

Page 56 (my book)

Almost every physical object carries advertising, almost every human environment is suffused with advertising, almost every moment of time is calibrated by advertising.

As the above makes clear advertising is everywhere – and this is because we love our stuff. In fact, we want more of it.

The author makes the point that advertisers themselves know very little about the effect their advertisements have on the public (i.e. do they increase sales?) – and they would rather keep it that way – the truth could be disastrous. There is little statistically known of the correlation of advertising to sales. Advertising is a tax deduction for the companies using it, so better to pay for advertising than pay taxes.

Page 11-12

We are not suddenly transformed from customers to consumers by wily manufacturers eager to unload a surplus of crappy products. We have created a surfeit of things because we enjoy the process of getting and spending.
…The Marxist balderdash of cloistered academics aside, human beings did not suddenly become materialistic. We have always been desirous of things… What we crave may not be objects at all but their meaning… by branding things, advertising transforms a role historically associated with religion.

For those who are religious this book may offend. The author makes many comparisons between Madison Avenue and Christianity – in particular the Roman Catholic Church which has for centuries been very good at promoting itself (despite the recent negative publicity). Think of all those beautiful churches and all the wonderful stuff inside them. But to compare a Renaissance artist employed by the church hundreds of years ago to a car commercial seems a bit of a stretch! However, the point is made that the Roman Catholic Church paid those talented artists and craftsmen good money – and it drew parishioners to their churches.

This book was published in 1996 and it is dated. Obviously, there is little on the impact of the internet on advertising. The author keeps mentioning cigarette ads – these hardly exist now in North America. He also misses the diversification of TV that has occurred in the last several years where specialty channels present movies and TV series without commercials.

I also felt he could have been more critical of the gender differences constantly proclaimed in advertising. The representation of women’s bodies to sell lingerie and cosmetics is way over the top.

Even though cigarette commercials are no more there is a wide proliferation of gambling commercials (government lotteries, casinos…). I wonder about the legitimacy of this when addictive gambling has destroyed many lives.

There are interesting discussions on the history of advertising. The criticisms of it did not start in our modern era, but with a great deal of satire in the 1930’s.

There is also a discussion of so-called subliminal advertising. As per the author there is nothing subliminal in advertising – it’s all in front of us! And advertisers assimilated this trend to their advantage!

The writing is snappy and entertaining as well as the many illustrations.

[Eric Chappell]

Twitchell puts forward the thesis that advertising is The central institution in American culture. Advertising doesn't create our love of things; instead, it taps into something profoundly human about all of us: desire. There were bits and pieces of Twitchell's book that were outstanding. His parallel between what advertising seeks to do and the goal of religion was especially fascinating. At the heart of both is the promise of rescue and transformation. My central problem with this book is that although Twitchell has really done his homework, he hasn't presented his material in a synthesized and easily readable form. He often loses the forest for the trees, inundating the reader with so many details that the larger issues blur and are finally lost.

[Abbie]

This is obviously a dated book, but extremely entertaining. I would be very interested in the author's take on the massive changes in advertising today. I think he could have done with a better editor, however. The Titanic sank in 1912 and not 1910...

[William Collen]

Twitchell's thesis—that American culture is defined by advertising—is nothing new or controversial, but he tells it with such flair that it's worth being told what we already know.

[Scott Korljan]

Twitchell manages to make an extremely interesting subject laborious. I was excited to read this book, but a few pages into each of his five chapters, I found myself bored. It's not that he doesn't have a lot of good content, but that he overdoes it. Too much content packed to densely into each chapter with seemingly little concern for how it reads.

[Steve]

For those employed in marketing, James Twitchell documents winning the battle of advertising shaping culture. Which leaves me to hope civilization learns to be more critical in their material consumption.

[Drew]

Read it for my StratComm class. An interesting look at the saturation of advertising in American culture. The comparison to Christianity (or cult status) was an illogical stretch, though.

[Scott Pakudaitis]

Interesting perspective on American culture and advertising's influence on it. The arguments surrounding high vs. low culture were very thought-provoking.

[Macalester Linguistics]

A 6.0