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The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture
The ad men behind CBC Radio’s The Age of Persuasion combine lively social history and years of industry experience to show how the art of persuasion shapes our culture.
Witty, erudite and irrepressibly irreverent, The Age of Persuasion provides a hugely entertaining — and eye-opening — insider’s look at the ever-expanding world of marketing.
The Age of Persuasion is for those who say “advertising doesn’t work on me” as well as those who want to understand how this industry has become inseparable from modern culture. Using their popular CBC Radio series as a starting point, Terry O’Reilly and Mike Tennant tell the fascinating story of how modern marketing came of age — from the early players to the Mad Men of the 1960s and beyond. With insider anecdotes and examples drawn from pop culture, they also probe deeply into the day-to-day workings and ethics of a business that is rapidly evolving in the age of Facebook and YouTube.
Witty, erudite and irrepressibly irreverent, The Age of Persuasion provides a hugely entertaining — and eye-opening — insider’s look at the ever-expanding world of marketing.
The Age of Persuasion is for those who say “advertising doesn’t work on me” as well as those who want to understand how this industry has become inseparable from modern culture. Using their popular CBC Radio series as a starting point, Terry O’Reilly and Mike Tennant tell the fascinating story of how modern marketing came of age — from the early players to the Mad Men of the 1960s and beyond. With insider anecdotes and examples drawn from pop culture, they also probe deeply into the day-to-day workings and ethics of a business that is rapidly evolving in the age of Facebook and YouTube.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2007
54 people are currently reading
721 people want to read
About the author
Terry O'Reilly
5 books35 followersTerry O'Reilly, the winner of hundreds of international advertising awards, is the bestselling author of The Age of Persuasion and This I Know. He is also an in-demand speaker. His highly awarded radio programs O'Reilly on Advertising, The Age of Persuasion and Under the Influence have been broadcast on CBC radio since 2005, and his podcasts have been downloaded over forty million times. Terry O'Reilly lives near Huntsville, Ontario.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
January 2, 2015
I like their CBC show and this is pretty much a book version of it. A history of advertising (primarily in North America) mainly told through anecdotes and industry folklore.
One thing that's emphasized a lot is the authors' thesis that there's an unwritten Contract between advertisers and the public -- that the advertisers will give the public something for taking up their time. Ie., the ad will entertain or at least underwrite the cost of a tv show, magazine, etc.
One thing that's emphasized a lot is the authors' thesis that there's an unwritten Contract between advertisers and the public -- that the advertisers will give the public something for taking up their time. Ie., the ad will entertain or at least underwrite the cost of a tv show, magazine, etc.
December 6, 2010
I didn't hear the Age of Persuasion series on the CBC, but the book they made out of it is chock full of interesting facts and insights into the history of advertising and marketing. An engaging read for anyone who has ever wondered why Starbucks doesn't just call their drink sizes s, m, and l.
December 30, 2023
EXCELLENT listen! As someone who has worked in different aspects of marketing for most of my adult life, I couldn't have appreciated this book more. It's a must read/listen for any marketing student. Loved the radio histories and the section on immersive experiences. It's dated in a few sections so it's likely time for another book from this team.
May 3, 2023
An interesting look at the history of advertising, which in itself can be considered an art form, from the late 1800s to the early 2010s. The fact that there are internal competitions, trade literature, awards and thought movements within the marketing sphere was a surprise to me as a layman reader, and it reminded me of reading about the fashion industry or sports history, where authors reference the "greats" of their time, individuals and achievements I have never heard of. O'Reilly and Tennant navigate the reader through the changes in how advertising is performed, from the heady days of page long newsprint, to soap company sponsored soap operas on radio, product placements on television, and finally viral videos on the internet. On one hand, this changing landscape of information technology makes it apparent that there are no hard and fast rules on how to make a good ad, on the other, the authors lament the seeming declining quality in attention spans modern consumers have, where buying the space and time required to tell a compelling story is becoming a harder and harder sell. The authors ethos orbits around a sort of social contract, one that was new and interesting to me as a layperson, that consumers give up their time and attention to marketing companies in order to be either entertained or informed. Stuff like the old radio shows weren't free and in exchange for a block of programming, users would have to listen to a soap company pitch. In turn, the authors malign advertisers that take advantage of the users attention, things like garish billboards and junk mail or spam, that actively provide very little value to consumers and hurt the perception of the advertising industry.
The one thing I disagree with in this book is the authors assertion that the salesman trick of taking up more of a clients time increases the odds of a sale, whether that be in an advertisement or an in-person sales pitch. I think maybe that might have worked with members of the older generation but I think modern consumers are so atomized nowadays that they have no problems saying no. Overall, a very interesting read and recommended light-reading.
Some useful quotes and my thoughts:
"Local radio sponsors often mistakenly treat their thirty-second commercial as an elevator pitch, to be stuffed with their name (three times, please), street address, Internet address, telephone number, and if time allows, what it is they're selling. When talking to clients and writers of such ads, I used the analogy of apples. If I have five apples in my hand and I throw them at you, chances are you're going to drop them. But if I have just one apple and I lob it to you, you'll likely catch it. So it is with information in today's overly cluttered media." (Pg.23)
Reminds me of whenever I get into an argument with someone online, I'll list out 3 points but they'll always fixate on the last one as if they just skimmed the body of my argument.
"In the same way, people often think of advertisers as one humungous, collective "they." Which means that "they" put up that tacky poster in a washroom stall, placed the stylish Versace ad in Vogue, and produced that epic Super Bowl TV spot. One could readily imagine that "they" hold regular meetings in some Dr. Evil-type lair, deep in the bowls of the high-rent district."
"Here's a more accurate metaphor: think of advertisers as millions of ants in a colony, each working hard and each with its own objective. Except that in this colony, every single ant is competing against the others. That's the ad business. Almost every ad you see, hear, and otherwise experience is competing for a piece of your imagination. And like any cross-section of humanity, the vast, worldwide advertising community is diverse: composed of geniuses and idiots, saints and buffoons, and everything in between." (Pg.25)
Great humanizing quote for ad people
"When you fill out a contest ballot, you're turning over information to a data miner; you do the same when you oblige the cashier who asks for your phone number and postal code. Any fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories might imagine what could be deduced about a person when you know their name and address and can track a number of their purchases, and retailers do use that information to tweak their business. Just as often though, they package the data and rent it to unrelated marketers. The ski suit and luggage you buy at a department store might lead, months later, to a cold call telemarketer hoping to sell you a timeshare in the Laurentians-the galling part being that you're never privy to the information exchange that connected the two." (Pg.40)
Reminds me of Cialdini's advice in Influence to completely avoid filling out surveys, polls or anything of that sort to avoid future headaches from bad advertisers.
"Loyalties forged among young listeners would pay dividends long after the commercials faded. And research would later affirm what those early marketers might only have suspected: children as young as two can develop brand loyalties, while children as young as three recognize brand logos. Advertisers also learned to change tack when speaking to kids, not just in their language and tone, but in their sales strategy. Rather than citing the benefits that might best appeal to mothers-economy and nutritional value, for instance-they painted on the much broader canvas of the young imagination." (Pg.81)
Just further proof that children should be steered away from consuming too much media, especially screen based
"Advertisers are constantly accused of creating trends, shaping attitudes, and planting new behaviors in consumers. But in fact, the opposite is true: advertising doesn't set trends, it follows them. Bold new ideas are embraced in advertising only after society has long since accepted them. Advertising is the great mirror of society.{...}Advertisers have been among the last to liberate women, provide equality among races, and free the gay/bi/transgender community from its closet. In a way, it's this very conservatism that makes advertising so powerful. It's so safe, so unwilling to challenge public sensibilities that when it does shift to reflect new thinking, it actually normalizes-or even consecrates-the trend. When an ad shows a female boss or a same-sex or mixed-race couple, or when it stops showing smokers, it implies a prevailing view." (Pg.162)
Really interesting take that goes against the popular online view that advertisers are somehow the puppet-masters of popular culture.
"Marketing to the sense isn't logical. Neither is appealing to people's emotions in order to sell them spaghetti sauce. Marketing is such a time-stressed, results-hungry business where advertisers are none too comfortable sailing their brands into the uncharted waters of sensory persuasion. Yet confining a relationship with customers to television and the printed word is like building a romantic relationship on going to the movies and handshakes. A romance is multifaceted, and that included flowers, chocolates, perfume, walks in the park, promises and nice dinners. In a world where the competition can easily match your offerings, marketers need to create an experience, an emotional connection." (Pg.189)
Reminds me of why politicians need to actually develop a certain aesthetic and speaking voice, the strength of their writing isn't enough to sell a message. Even politicians who are selling lies can do it successfully if their "brand" makes sense at every level.
"A new generation of ad copywriters would learn to master the "good read" at the heart of great long-form print ads. David Ogilvy wasn't talking through his fedora when he said, "On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar." And he's right. Though any great ad writer understands the power of that remaining twenty cents-the body copy." (Pg.236)
So true, I've sadly read way more article headlines than the articles themselves.
"This ad by DDB is exceptional not only for its originality but also for the fact that it was self-deprecating. Canadians love self-depreciating humor and respond to in advertising. Americans, on the other hand, do not as a rule. Whenever I've written self-deprecating ads for U.S. agencies, they've been turned down-which speaks to the vast tribal differences on either side of the forty-ninth parallel." (Pg.237)
Fun cultural anecdote between us and Americans
The one thing I disagree with in this book is the authors assertion that the salesman trick of taking up more of a clients time increases the odds of a sale, whether that be in an advertisement or an in-person sales pitch. I think maybe that might have worked with members of the older generation but I think modern consumers are so atomized nowadays that they have no problems saying no. Overall, a very interesting read and recommended light-reading.
Some useful quotes and my thoughts:
"Local radio sponsors often mistakenly treat their thirty-second commercial as an elevator pitch, to be stuffed with their name (three times, please), street address, Internet address, telephone number, and if time allows, what it is they're selling. When talking to clients and writers of such ads, I used the analogy of apples. If I have five apples in my hand and I throw them at you, chances are you're going to drop them. But if I have just one apple and I lob it to you, you'll likely catch it. So it is with information in today's overly cluttered media." (Pg.23)
Reminds me of whenever I get into an argument with someone online, I'll list out 3 points but they'll always fixate on the last one as if they just skimmed the body of my argument.
"In the same way, people often think of advertisers as one humungous, collective "they." Which means that "they" put up that tacky poster in a washroom stall, placed the stylish Versace ad in Vogue, and produced that epic Super Bowl TV spot. One could readily imagine that "they" hold regular meetings in some Dr. Evil-type lair, deep in the bowls of the high-rent district."
"Here's a more accurate metaphor: think of advertisers as millions of ants in a colony, each working hard and each with its own objective. Except that in this colony, every single ant is competing against the others. That's the ad business. Almost every ad you see, hear, and otherwise experience is competing for a piece of your imagination. And like any cross-section of humanity, the vast, worldwide advertising community is diverse: composed of geniuses and idiots, saints and buffoons, and everything in between." (Pg.25)
Great humanizing quote for ad people
"When you fill out a contest ballot, you're turning over information to a data miner; you do the same when you oblige the cashier who asks for your phone number and postal code. Any fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories might imagine what could be deduced about a person when you know their name and address and can track a number of their purchases, and retailers do use that information to tweak their business. Just as often though, they package the data and rent it to unrelated marketers. The ski suit and luggage you buy at a department store might lead, months later, to a cold call telemarketer hoping to sell you a timeshare in the Laurentians-the galling part being that you're never privy to the information exchange that connected the two." (Pg.40)
Reminds me of Cialdini's advice in Influence to completely avoid filling out surveys, polls or anything of that sort to avoid future headaches from bad advertisers.
"Loyalties forged among young listeners would pay dividends long after the commercials faded. And research would later affirm what those early marketers might only have suspected: children as young as two can develop brand loyalties, while children as young as three recognize brand logos. Advertisers also learned to change tack when speaking to kids, not just in their language and tone, but in their sales strategy. Rather than citing the benefits that might best appeal to mothers-economy and nutritional value, for instance-they painted on the much broader canvas of the young imagination." (Pg.81)
Just further proof that children should be steered away from consuming too much media, especially screen based
"Advertisers are constantly accused of creating trends, shaping attitudes, and planting new behaviors in consumers. But in fact, the opposite is true: advertising doesn't set trends, it follows them. Bold new ideas are embraced in advertising only after society has long since accepted them. Advertising is the great mirror of society.{...}Advertisers have been among the last to liberate women, provide equality among races, and free the gay/bi/transgender community from its closet. In a way, it's this very conservatism that makes advertising so powerful. It's so safe, so unwilling to challenge public sensibilities that when it does shift to reflect new thinking, it actually normalizes-or even consecrates-the trend. When an ad shows a female boss or a same-sex or mixed-race couple, or when it stops showing smokers, it implies a prevailing view." (Pg.162)
Really interesting take that goes against the popular online view that advertisers are somehow the puppet-masters of popular culture.
"Marketing to the sense isn't logical. Neither is appealing to people's emotions in order to sell them spaghetti sauce. Marketing is such a time-stressed, results-hungry business where advertisers are none too comfortable sailing their brands into the uncharted waters of sensory persuasion. Yet confining a relationship with customers to television and the printed word is like building a romantic relationship on going to the movies and handshakes. A romance is multifaceted, and that included flowers, chocolates, perfume, walks in the park, promises and nice dinners. In a world where the competition can easily match your offerings, marketers need to create an experience, an emotional connection." (Pg.189)
Reminds me of why politicians need to actually develop a certain aesthetic and speaking voice, the strength of their writing isn't enough to sell a message. Even politicians who are selling lies can do it successfully if their "brand" makes sense at every level.
"A new generation of ad copywriters would learn to master the "good read" at the heart of great long-form print ads. David Ogilvy wasn't talking through his fedora when he said, "On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar." And he's right. Though any great ad writer understands the power of that remaining twenty cents-the body copy." (Pg.236)
So true, I've sadly read way more article headlines than the articles themselves.
"This ad by DDB is exceptional not only for its originality but also for the fact that it was self-deprecating. Canadians love self-depreciating humor and respond to in advertising. Americans, on the other hand, do not as a rule. Whenever I've written self-deprecating ads for U.S. agencies, they've been turned down-which speaks to the vast tribal differences on either side of the forty-ninth parallel." (Pg.237)
Fun cultural anecdote between us and Americans
April 17, 2020
A very entertaining book that tackles US advertisement from a historical and sociological side. Taking into account all possible mediums, and distinguishing their pros and cons. Great read for the whole family!
January 13, 2022
This is a really interesting insiders look at advertising and how it affects us. Full of great anecdotes about how certain ideas got started. I learned a lot about how it influences our culture and the decisions we make.
August 25, 2013
Listening to the Radio Show was always entertaning and reading the book allowed me to reread themes that were of particular interest.
March 12, 2015
Reads like a textbook of the history of advertising.
August 5, 2021
No es un mal libro, y está bien documentado, pero no me ha enganchado y me ha costado bastante terminarlo. Será porque tiene demasiadas referencias a marcas desconocidas para mí (sobre todo canadienses). The Attention Merchants de Tim Wu me gustó muchísimo más, y lo recomiendo encarecidamente (los comparo porque al fin y al cabo hablan casi de lo mismo, de los medios de comunicación a lo largo de la historia y cómo estos pelean por retener nuestra atención). Esperaba que Age of persuasion me proporcionase un análisis más profundo de la publicidad pero, aunque tiene ejemplos interesantes, me ha parecido demasiado superficial.
May 8, 2021
Love, love, love Terry O'Reilly. I find his podcasts and Under the Influence shows always entertaining, educational and great food for thought. Chalk full of historical and memorable references, I found myself saying "oh, yeah, I remember that one!" or "Oh, wow, I did not know that!!!". There is so much jammed into his prose, I am thinking I might need to go back and listen to it again to make sure I got as much out of it as I could! Enjoy!
March 26, 2019
Wonderful reading experience, even a decade after its first publication. As a fan of Terry O'Reilly's podcast already, I enjoyed his tales of legendary marketing campaigns. The last chapters wrapping up the persuasion piece were the most impactful: Marketing throughout the centuries boils down to audiences that demand the truth - in marketing and in the product or service they trusted in.
March 8, 2021
As a fan of his podcasts, I was very intrigued to have a book dive deeper into advertising and how it affects our culture. I think this book was even better as I just read contagious which was awful. This book contains many interesting stories a lot like his podcast. The amount of experience he has, makes this well worth the time.
Read
April 3, 2025It's a bit dated now, but still a great book. So much has changed with technology and platforms that could never have been predicted when this was written. Regardless, it's entertaining and informative. I listen to the audio book, as Terry O has a very expressive voice. I imagine it's honed from years of radio advertising experience, and quite frankly, I'd listen to him read the dictionary.
November 17, 2022
Always a pleasure to listen to Terry O'Reilly. This book gives a broad historical overview of advertising that's interesting (if at times repetitive). I learned a lot and I'll be happy to go back to the more tightly written episodes of CBC Radio's "Under the Influence."
March 17, 2020
Love it!
February 2, 2021
An uncritical historical view on advertising in the States mostly. A lot like the show. Glad I got the audiobook.
May 4, 2021
I love Terry O’Reilly. He’s persuaded me!
January 8, 2017
I loved his radio show and this was more of the same.
May 23, 2025
I am interested in advertising, so this book appealed to me. The authors Terry O'Reilly and Mike Tennant offered an engaging read of the behind the scenes design of the ads we are presented every day, both the obvious ones and the not so obvious ones. Written in 2009, the apprehension that the material may be dated is soon dismissed as the themes of advertising and persuasion persist and evolve with the technology changes that occurred in the late 20th century and early 21st century and will carry forward with new technology. Altogether an enjoyable read.
December 27, 2011
Smart, broad, smoothly written book about not only the history of marketing, but the issues and ethics surrounding it. The book provides great examples of innovative marketing campaigns and explains them to the reader in an insightful manner, while letting those anecdotes come to reflect larger ideas. The content is mostly for people who are just getting into thinking about marketing, though for pros this might function as a nice shorthand. One of the best things the authors do is that they really come across as having a lot of heart, and that's a rare thing with marketing books. This doesn't want to just give you anecdotes or tell you stories, but it invites you to think more deeply about marketing and its function in culture, and it also empowers consumers and receivers of marketing messages. Again, there's a lot of heart here, and it makes a load of difference in the way that the book is written and in the insights that it offers. The book never tries to pull one over on us, precisely because that's what we've come to think of marketing, but rather equips us with ideas and perspectives that allow us to better understand how marketing works, and thus how the world around us works.
January 9, 2012
I'm a fan of the Age of Persuasion radio show on CBC, and reading this book, you can almost hear Terry O'Reilly's voice in your mind. He shares lots of interesting stories behind various advertising campaigns, as well as plenty of relevant insight into the art of persuasion and marketing.
However, I read the ebook version, and it is not optimally formatted for e-reading. I often had to zoom waaay in to see the tiny quotes at the beginning of each chapter; the text was set at full-justified, meaning huge gaps often appeared between words; it wasn't always clear what the little sidebar asides connected to; and there were quite a few typos, like end-of-line hyphens left in words.
However, we are just entering the ebook age and the quality does vary widely from book to book. Perhaps future versions of this book as an ebook will include such things as embedded audio and video and weblinks to all the interesting media O'Reilly talks about?
However, I read the ebook version, and it is not optimally formatted for e-reading. I often had to zoom waaay in to see the tiny quotes at the beginning of each chapter; the text was set at full-justified, meaning huge gaps often appeared between words; it wasn't always clear what the little sidebar asides connected to; and there were quite a few typos, like end-of-line hyphens left in words.
However, we are just entering the ebook age and the quality does vary widely from book to book. Perhaps future versions of this book as an ebook will include such things as embedded audio and video and weblinks to all the interesting media O'Reilly talks about?
November 1, 2012
When companies advertise they are informing people about products while causing a stir in their psyche. In "The Age of Persuasion" Terry O'Reilly explains how certain advertising and marketing trends create, inspire, and cause panic people's lives.
Based off the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) radio show, "The Age of Persuasion" surprises a reader by explaining how products like Aunt Jemima pancakes and Kellogg's Corn Flakes were introduced to mass audiences in the late 1890's. It also shows how advertising or marketing spreads panic through radio by announcing an alien invasion (You should know what that is. If not, there was a movie about it starring Tom Cruise.).
For anyone interesting in marketing, advertising, just wanting to hone up on one or both skills, or developing a new product, "The Age of Persuasion" serves as a tool to make you "Think different" or to "Just Do It!"
Based off the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) radio show, "The Age of Persuasion" surprises a reader by explaining how products like Aunt Jemima pancakes and Kellogg's Corn Flakes were introduced to mass audiences in the late 1890's. It also shows how advertising or marketing spreads panic through radio by announcing an alien invasion (You should know what that is. If not, there was a movie about it starring Tom Cruise.).
For anyone interesting in marketing, advertising, just wanting to hone up on one or both skills, or developing a new product, "The Age of Persuasion" serves as a tool to make you "Think different" or to "Just Do It!"
September 2, 2010
One of the few radio shows that have been made into a book. I loved listening to show and I enjoyed the book as well. A major theme is how technology changed advertising.
One of the interesting vignettes tells the story that YouTube didn't take off until the Mentos mints and Diet Coke experiments were put on the site. "Videos showed the two element s combining,causing a high-powered, sticky geyser. By 2008 the top three Mentos-Diet Coke videos had drawn more than eleven million hits."
"Advertising is never a science but rather an art. From our mistakes we’ve learned many directions not to go. It’s an intuitive process. There are no solid set in stone rules, or paint by number. There is no diabolical witchcraft at work, just people tyring to wrap the best message around a product."
It is a fun read.
One of the interesting vignettes tells the story that YouTube didn't take off until the Mentos mints and Diet Coke experiments were put on the site. "Videos showed the two element s combining,causing a high-powered, sticky geyser. By 2008 the top three Mentos-Diet Coke videos had drawn more than eleven million hits."
"Advertising is never a science but rather an art. From our mistakes we’ve learned many directions not to go. It’s an intuitive process. There are no solid set in stone rules, or paint by number. There is no diabolical witchcraft at work, just people tyring to wrap the best message around a product."
It is a fun read.
November 2, 2014
Fascinating subject matter - the advent of ad campaigns; the psychology of the consumer; the stories behind the characters that sell us stuff. Anyone who is a fan of the radio show would enjoy the book. It's long and full of detail; I would set it down for a month or so and then go back for more. The format is suited to that though as the chapters are relatively stand-alone.
The best part of the book is that I just heard Terry O'Reilly narrating the whole thing in my head.
If you were a fan of Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking you will probably like this book and vice-versa (based on the subject matter, anyway).
The best part of the book is that I just heard Terry O'Reilly narrating the whole thing in my head.
If you were a fan of Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking you will probably like this book and vice-versa (based on the subject matter, anyway).
August 4, 2019
Terry O'Reilly is at his best in this highly-readable book when he sheds his Adman's skin and focuses on the social history of advertising. What comes through a bit too often for this reader, however, is that his hidden (and perhaps subconscious) message is that advertising generally is a good thing. A genuinely thoughtful book would have probed this assumption with greater cynicism.
We are treated to a litany of successful advertising campaigns, without the biggest question being asked: if past success in a changing world is no guarantee of future results, what exactly do we have to learn from the past, and what are the false lessons?
We are treated to a litany of successful advertising campaigns, without the biggest question being asked: if past success in a changing world is no guarantee of future results, what exactly do we have to learn from the past, and what are the false lessons?
November 30, 2020
I received this book as a gift several years ago and never got around to reading it. It wasn’t for lack of interest and I have listened to O’Reilly on CBC weekly radio show on the same theme and with the same name.
There is a lot of good advertising but much more bad; O’Reilly and Tennant cover the waterfront. You’ll agree with most of what they say because they are so perceptive and knowledgeable. The book is informative, fascinating and entertaining. You will learn and lot, be better informed in general about the process, and see why some ads do their work, even if you are annoyed at advertising in general and some ads in particular.
You’ll also be better armed against commercials.
There is a lot of good advertising but much more bad; O’Reilly and Tennant cover the waterfront. You’ll agree with most of what they say because they are so perceptive and knowledgeable. The book is informative, fascinating and entertaining. You will learn and lot, be better informed in general about the process, and see why some ads do their work, even if you are annoyed at advertising in general and some ads in particular.
You’ll also be better armed against commercials.
August 19, 2010
Did you know the word "brainwashing" came from the Chinese? (I had thought the translation so direct and literal that it was the other way around).
Such tid-bits appear in Terry O'Rielly's "The Age of Persuasion...", regularly and make the book seem like the written equivalent of a pop-up music video.
For those who enjoy the CBC Radio 1 production, The Age of Persuasion, you'll find that Terry and Mike Tennant deliver, just as on the program, information and entertainment perfectly rolled into one.
Look forward to reading it again.
Such tid-bits appear in Terry O'Rielly's "The Age of Persuasion...", regularly and make the book seem like the written equivalent of a pop-up music video.
For those who enjoy the CBC Radio 1 production, The Age of Persuasion, you'll find that Terry and Mike Tennant deliver, just as on the program, information and entertainment perfectly rolled into one.
Look forward to reading it again.
August 25, 2011
Great book if you'd like a crash course on the history and methods of Marketing. It's sprinkled with wit and is an engaging read. This will make you understand the major benchmarks and reasoning behind what marketing was, what it has become, and insights into where it's headed.
I particularly liked the insight it provides about what it's like to be a marketer and having to compete with clutter and over-saturation. They hate it more than the consumer does!
I particularly liked the insight it provides about what it's like to be a marketer and having to compete with clutter and over-saturation. They hate it more than the consumer does!
September 17, 2012
Anyone who gets caught up in the Mad Men tv show would probably get a kick out of this book.
It's a social history of advertising, and as authors are ad men themselves, they're sympathetic to challenges advertisers face in trying to connect with consumers.
It's all changing as there are many more outlets competing for our attention - and with the Internet, consumers can criticize products to a large audience.
It's very readable with examples of memorable campaigns.
It's a social history of advertising, and as authors are ad men themselves, they're sympathetic to challenges advertisers face in trying to connect with consumers.
It's all changing as there are many more outlets competing for our attention - and with the Internet, consumers can criticize products to a large audience.
It's very readable with examples of memorable campaigns.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews