Advertising Books

A must see (not read) for any art director working in a creative environment. Filled with great conceptual work.

As a professional copywriter giving a positive review to this book might seem like professional suicide, but to be a copywriter is to develop strong CONCEPTS. Part of that is accepting the responsibility of using words effectively on behalf of your client - and sometimes that means using no words at all.

Really, this book is a collection of brilliant concepts that happen not to need much, if any, copy. It's as a conceptual book that this collection of work really shines.

Also, the concepts are diverse enough that they don't become boring or predictable, unlike some other collections that confine themselves to one medium or style of advertising, i.e. outdoor, television or "sex sells" photography.

I have to admit there is a minute amount of copy in some of these ads, but always less than a sentence. Plus, I think a tiny minority of these concepts would have been stronger communications with a hint more of copy.


All of that said, it's a book that every copywriter, art director or person who like to think of themselves as "creative" should have on their shelves.

I'd even go so far as to say that's it's more useful to have this book than the most recent One Show and it's a heck of a lot cheaper - and less likely to disappear.

Having been in the middle of a number of crisis communications incidents at a university and medical institution, I immediately related to Baron's examples of the feeding frenzy that is the media world today. His discussion of the tendency to seek easy villains without concern for truth is very useful to draw on when talking to people caught in the middle of a feeding frenzy - or even people just trying to plan for the inevitable day when there will be a crisis. I was reminded of reasons that many of us have left journalism ... That all said, one should quickly note that it's not just the media that create the frenzy - it's also all of us who consume the media. And now, many of the people who were formerly consumers can 'make' news themselves. Baron covers all the new ways that people in all parts of the community can use technology to raise issues, both for good and bad.

With lightening speed companies are suddenly thrust into crisis mode in these heady electronic times. Today's PR professional has to not only think quickly, but proactively to think ahead. How to handle a situation like the ones handed, say, Firestone, or Andersen. This book is the best one in its field when it comes to rolling up its sleeves and offering pragmatic guidance. Baron has been there and done it. He can help you and your company survive. Get this book, and be ready!

rick poyner has done it again. i think that if you are interested in design and cultural landscape, you will thourougly appreciate this book. you really can't find a better examination of culture meeting design. obey the giant.

Rick Poyner chimes in on pop culture throughout this series of essays, which collectively produce a loud, clanging wake-up call. If you are a creative professional or student, you MUST read this book!

Mr. Poyner provides an accessible, but unflinching look at the role of our profession and it's impact on humanity. In this book, the cute, hip, self-referential "Irony" of the last decade is no longer a revelation, and Poyner questions what it means now that "respected" corporations and self-promoting advertisers and designers have co-opted it.

As an instructor of Commuication Design, I have for years preached to my students to "be responsible for every mark that you make" in order to communicate effectively. This little book has fueled that fire for me with it's view of the bigger picture and has forever altered my perception of my role not only as a designer and a consumer, but as a human.

Produced by the non-profit One Club for Art and Copy this annual collection of award winning advertisements is an entertaining look at the best of 1999's advertising. An essential reference for advertising creatives and marketing mavens.

What a concept -- the One Show is based on the idea that creativity is the product of a writer AND an art director. This big book celebrates the best new work of the year in a number of categories. Creative people need to see what OTHER creatives are doing. This is a wonderful overview.

Plenty of nostalgia! GREAT pictures! Interesting facts of Pepsi's very beginings. From that first drug store sip,to bankruptcies and all the way to Pepsi's current success. It is also very easy to identify when my Pepsi collectibles were made with the information in this book.

I thought myself to be well read on Pepsi history. To my delight, this book proved me wrong. Never before has so much history been written in such an enjoyable to read manner. Thank you Bob Stoddard.

BOOK REVIEW FOR PERPETUAL MARKETING
(The Right Marketing at the Right Time)
by
Patrick Perugini with Jeff Wiss

This is a path-breaking and landmark publication for any organization interested in enhancing their marketing endeavors in order to attain faster and better results. It is the first time that as a reader I felt truly engaged in an interactive process with the authors. They asked me to answer 15 questions and calculate a score. As a test of repeatability, I asked my marketing colleague within our institution to do the same, and she obtained independently the exact same score (2.2) which placed us clearly in the Solutions Phase II quadrant of the Service Lifecycle. From there it was a simple matter to go to the templates on pp. 115-129 to obtain a ready-to-implement immediately set of vital, mission critical marketing and sales tactics.

Having read many marketing books, this is the first one that began to approach a scientific paradigm for me. It contains plausible and reasonable theoretical models for several realistic, empirically based situations-e.g., products vs. services. It definitely has a high-tech spin, but I believe it has wider and more general relevance and application opportunities.

For the layperson I think the next edition of this book could be enhanced by including a definitive glossary of important marketing terms (jargon) at the back of the book. I found myself seeking clarification of exact connotations of "parity plus one," "customer touch points," and so forth.

Overall, buying and perusing this book which only recently (January 2002) became widely available is a high value-added proposition where the probable returns are orders of magnitude greater than the modest purchase price. I can't help but wonder how many failed companies could and should have been saved if they truly understood and applied the revolutionary content contained in this short (159 pp.) eye-opener. I recommend it without qualification to anyone and everyone who has ever been puzzled by the marketing maze.

Perpetual Marketing is a comforting North Star with associated, detailed charts to make it easier to navigate the dangerous waters of today's dynamic global marketplace with more confidence and less fear of the unknown.

Book Reviewed by,
Larry R. Cross, Ph.D.
EI President/ CEO
Boulder, Colorado
February 14, 2002

Marketing gurus Patrick Perugini and Jeff Wiss have developed a completely repeatable process for achieving success in high-tech markets. This book offers a blue print of what to do when (and why) in order to get early market success for a new product and how to innovate in marketing as the market evolves. There's more to it in this book than most books of its kind: practical steps, tools and guidelines that will lead you through the four phases of their marketing lifecycle model. I highly recommend this book for people who are looking for more science in their marketing.

This book is great for the WPA expert or for the novice like myself. The body of work represented in the book opens your eyes to a subject matter that seems largely overlooked as serious art. Nevertheless, the volume of work produced during this period and the number of people reached by this work is truly amazing.

A wonderful book of Works Progress Administration posters. Only about two thousand of these survive from the millions printed and 280 are shown in color. They are not posters in the billboard size that everyone is familiar with but mostly small twenty-two by fourteen inches, quickly designed and printed by silkscreen.

Because they were easy and cheap to produce any government or civic department could use the medium, from the New York Foreign Trade Zone, the Seattle Children's Theatre to Stop the Spread of Syphilis, the design styles are just as varied from the whimsical to the stark graphic statement.

Author DeNoon has done his research and explains how the WPA poster division worked, other contributors provide more extra detail. The back of the book has a Portfolio of eight artists. The work of the WPA ended in 1943 and fifteen of their war posters are shown. If you want to follow the story have a look at 'Dig for Victory' by William Bird and Harry Rubenstein, this informative book has 150 posters designed for the Home Front.

Social historians and graphic artists will enjoy 'Posters of the WPA' and incidentally I would suggest that anyone interested in book design gets a copy. The book (designed by Henry Vizcara) is an excellent example of how a graphic visual book should look, the grid design, column widths, typography of the headlines, text and captions, use of white space, paper and printing all work together to produce this lovely book.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This compelling art book contains beautiful images, illuminating details, and thumbnail sketches of modern art movements. The section titled "Posters and Reality" includes vivid posters and explores the ideas of expressionism, realism, and surrealism in an accessible, yet scholarly manner.
"Posters and Society", however, remains my favorite section. Tracing the evolution of the poster through travel, theater, and liquor ads, Barnicoat explains the significance of outdoor advertising in modern cities. Posters also seem to lend themselves to an ironic, comic style.
Yet the classic posters from World War I and II show that governments can also develop ideas in the popular medium. Wartime posters played a critical role in recruitment of soldiers, selling War Bonds, and instructing civilian populations to conserve precious supplies.
Barnicoat also seems fascinated with the use of posters by communist (Soviet Union, Mao's China, Castro's Cuba) and fascist dictatorships (Nazi)to create "consensus" and the illusion of mass support. He juxaposes these propagnda efforts with the students' posters of May '68 saying "these were attempts to produce a genuine pattern of popular art." (While few propaganda posters have become popular collectibles, wartime posters and protest posters from the 1960s command good prices these days among vintage poster collectors.)
Written in 1973 in a belated celebration of the poster's 100th birthday, this classic art book does show its age - both in the evident leftist sympathies and ignoring recent trends. Posters: A Concise History, however, remains the best introduction for art lovers, graphic designers, and poster collectors.

A delightful little book that has something to please everyone: an extensive collection of poster graphics from just before the turn of the twentieth century to the present -- Toulouse-Lautrec to Warhol, and then some -- and solid historical and cultural background information as well. Well written, well researched, well illustrated, well worth the money.

Let me say right from the beginning that I have been writing copy for more than a dozen years. Everything from broadcast to direct mail. And after you read all the essential classics in the field (and those copywriting for less than 5 years MUST first read the classics by Bly, Caples, Ogilvy, and yes Lewis too) I can't think of any other book better suited than this one for refining and fine tuning the more experienced copywriter! Power Copywriting takes us on a wonderful journey through the refinements of the copywriting craft. Things professionals have always instinctively known but LOVE seeing corroborated in print - and - things we've perhaps never considered and will try FIRST THING TOMORROW! Very little actual narrative. It's just pages and pages of sophisticated tips, secrets, and wisdom served to you in bite size chunks. A book not really meant for the novice because it presumes the reader can really tell the difference between a feature and a benefit and already understands all the basics. This book BUILDS UPON the basics. To stay sharp, I've read this book twice a year since I've purchased it. I've seen my copywriting "pull" significantly better after reading Lewis' Power and so will you. If you've already read the classics and have more than 4 or 5 years experience in copywriting - GET THIS BOOK!

I work in the creative department of a New York based advertising agency whose name most in the business would instantly recognize. Lewis's book was recommended to me as an interesting and valuable read. I bought it and found it immensely helpful. Wonderful! Not sure why more people in the "biz" don't know about it! I wholeheartedly agree with the review that appears above....this is an exquisite book. THIS is the book they should be using in graduate level communications courses. On the other hand, forget it. I want to keep my job! A TRUE GEM OF A BOOK - GET IT!

This book is the greatest book i read in my life. it is very easy to read, contains alot of things you will not find it in any book. the book is the good ref. to any one working in marketing, and i hope every one read this book and University set this book to be studied .

This book is the greatest book i read in my life. it is very easy to read, contains alot of things you will not find it in any book. the book is the good ref. to any one working in marketing, and i hope every one read this book and University set this book to be studied .