From Don Draper's "Mad Men" Bookshelf.

"Campaigns of persuasion to affect our daily acts of consumption".
"Image building and brand loyalty; the automobile tells who we are and what we think we want to be, it is a portable symbol of our personality and our position".
Mouth satisfactions, smoking-sucking. Impulse buying in self-service shopping, package design; selling symbols, social climbing.
Ch.15 The Psycho-Seduction of Children; Ch.16 New Frontiers
for Recruiting Customers, planned product obsolescence, psychological marketing for the expanding economy, confidence, and spending.

“It seems that TV companies simply cannot get staff nowadays. Us lazy, work-shy British steadfastly refuse to do unattractive, low-paid menial jobs like TV-presenting and newsreading. Then, practically every couple in the adverts consisted of a White female and coloured male, this often in the almost subliminal form forewarned by Vance Packard in his famous books The Hidden Persuaders (1957) and The People-Shapers (1977). Many of these deeply offensive images would appear only fleetingly in the background. There was virtually no respite from it – it was unrelenting. This constant promotion of miscegenation is too consistent to be anything but deliberate, genocidal propaganda.”
-Simon Sheppard, “From Blonking to Beatification”

An eye opener, even though published in 1957, that still resonates and is still very much relevant even today. A look into the psychology of the human mind, in particular where it involves our shopping habits and behaviors, but goes even beyond that mere point.

The author manages to draw our attention to the way #marketing, #PR and #advertising was approaching a new state-of-the-art at the middle of the XX century, when it shifted from the product-centric approach to the consumer-centric approach.

Some of the observations and ideas shared may be a bit much in our world today, but overall the truly disturbing aspect of this book is that it still applies today every bit as much as it did then, to us, as consumers and more importantly, as human beings. In any case, an important work which throws light on what we as people are subject to, and despite claims of quality, sustainability, being in the public interest etc, we see what companies are motivated by and how they try to achieve their goals.

Interesting, but out of date

Un llibre de finals dels 50, que ja ens avisa del que encara no hem entès sobre la publicitat: les formes de manipulació, la gestio de la informació i el condicionament de les respostes. Val la pena llegir-lo, per després seguir llegint obres més actuals.

Intriguing read, because at the time, consumer manipulation was only just beginning. There is a glimpse into a world before mass persuasion was the norm.
I slightly wonder at the conclusion though... just letting people know that they're being manipulated was not going to arm them against the onslaught of P.R. as we now know.
The methods at the time had one big flaw.... one section of the population never made it into the data bases: the ones who didn't like divulging information. Nowadays the data is wrenched from you, whether you like it or not. There seems to be only one way to protect oneself: not having money to spend.

Essentially a book of examples of motivational research as it relates to advertising and to a lesser extent politics.
The book dates from the mid fifties and as such acts as a history of the genesis of mass manipulation, steming from the engagement of psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists, to examine why people make the choices they do and what can be done to persuade them to purchase products or vote for politicians.
The book is easy to read, being written in a non-academic style and is at times fascinating in the explanations of irrational human behaviour and the tricks employed by big buisness to trigger the desired reactions. Moral implications are considered as is the future of mass marketing, but on the whole it is more of an impartial and factual account rather than a polemic against consumer society.

Shhhhh.. It's a secret.

An important book in the history of advertising. Dated, yes, but not really if you start digging into what's going on now with "MR" as it was called then. The book was a massive public hit, and changed america's view of advertising forever. It was influential in bringing some laws and regulations to things such as advertising to children, etc. That spotlight, however, caused many of the researchers to go deeper underground and stay more hidden. The techniques are dated, the science has modernized, but the desires and motivations of MR have not flagged.

Of course, then as now, much of the ad world doesn't buy into it. Ogilvy notoriously belittled the techniques Packard exposed here, and if you go read any AdAge article about current advertising MRI research, etc. you'll see many of today's advertising luminaries raising the same objections. They are still sound.

Today, we all know that advertisers go to great lengths to divine our inner soul. This is the book that brought that to our attention, and it's still a great read.

...how the puritan masses became dependant consumers. A basic education in marketing and consumer behaiviour. This book was meant to shock and entertain intitially in the late 1950's, but since we have adapted a thicker skin and humor all the while knowing that marketing is cold and calculating. The Author paints a picture of how it has changed the lower working classes and the middle class.
This isnt metioned right away, but packard repeatedly offers the suggestion that "positive thinkers" as we know them and witness them today are a result of modern marketing. We consume relative to how we want to be perceived. We are not in permanant awe of intellect or art... if you want to put your neighbor in a jealous awe, then consume to match the income level that you want to project. Isn't it commonly known that the neighbor who is actually quite rich has a more humble car for domestic use than the low to middle middle class neighbor? Even Ben Franklin thought it important to project industry and hide evidence of wealth. He was adapting to the puritan/post reformation transformed mentality of the displaced Europeans, soon to be an independent nation. Much of our nation (24% plus) is living with a comfortable simple Christian and consumer based being(oslt)... no conflict... smooth as a whistle played by a fluitist who really wants to make a good impression on St.Peter at the Holy gates.
In retrospect to what I just wrote, I think the beginning marketer can be entertained and highly informed at the same time. I personally wouldnt mind influencing popular opinion through my trade/s. Sometimes, the goal is quantity of wealth, then it helps to build calluses over the guilt reflexes.
Well worth a quick read-through. Notice the forbidden fruit temptation(symbolized by the apple to the modern mind) on the fishing hook on the cover, nice idea.

Interesting read about the early era of science entering advertising. Some of the language and assumptions are extremely of their time and hard to read nowadays.