Advertising Books

Frequently when a person travels through the Panhandle-South Plains region of Texas in the months of February or March, the question of how a person came to live in such a flat, dry area arises. Blodgett's _Land of Bright Promise: Advertising the Texas Panhandle and South Plains, 1870-1917_ very clearly explains how people were attracted to the region once the railroads were laid and the Indians were relegated to reservations. Even though the idea of cheap land was attraction enough, land companies and agents apparently provided a virtual blitz of advertising to sell the unsettled area. While the region is, indeed, beautiful when crops are in full bloom and clear blue skies are visible, survival here has not been easy. Jan Blodgett provides insight into what caused the area to be settled even though only the hardiest and persistent remained. While general readers may find the book a bit tedious, as a resident of Texas and historian, I love it and use it frequently for reference.

The book is pure gold. I wish I had this book eight years ago. There is no magic revealed, and no one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, the authors outlined the plethora of skills sets, personality traits and processes that lead to marketing your business and promoting your services. They even provide a CD with tools you can use immediately. You can dive in at any chapter of the book and find value. It is the kind of book where you will mark certain sections and keep it close by, even as a partner. I have seen no better roadmap, done in such a susinct and practical way than this 115 page book. It's now on my bookshelf and I will use it in my own business of coaching lawyers and helping firms develop more business. Every law firm in the country should buy it for their associates as a sign of their commitment to professional development (and their desire to retain them).

Holly Lentz Kleeman
Lentz Productions - Marketing & Business Development

Ohly and Spence have produced a very useful guide to a complicated but important area of the law. The authors examine the important jurisprudence in the area with insight and flair. They have distilled the important points and demonstrated a number of flaws in various European directives or proposals.

Following the principles and exercises in this book will result in ads that generate more calls from the right types of clients, and will almost certainly give any lawyer a significant advantage over the competition. Any lawyer who advertises in the Yellow Pages without following the steps outlined in this book is taking a huge gamble with his or her money. A yellow Pages ad developed using the principles in this book will likely generate many thousands of dollars more revenue than one created by the directory publisher.

If you're as fascinated by design theory and examples of layouts and letterheads as I am, you'll love this book. Since it's from the 30's there are a lot of art deco and modern motifs of the time included, which look so original today!

Artists Paul Carlyle & Guy Oring, text by Herbert S. Richland. The illustrations are in b&w, with a charming flair, and all the pages are bordered in a soft slate green - very attractive, and also very 30's! Many inspiring examples and hard to find stunning old fonts. Great deal, recommended.

Metal spiral binding allows book to lay flat or be put on copier.

"Lean Advertising" purports that the agency organizational structure of yesterday - and still, today - creates rigid thinking, expensive heirarchies, and barriers instead of breakthroughs. The authors' writing never gets bogged down or dry; important points are made swiftly through classic examples everyone can recognize. We're now using the book as a primer to help explain our agency's own value system. Book is highly recommended to both young people, who you want to have an understanding of the history of the agency business and why it is the way it is now, to seasoned execs who want to challenge some of the most institutionalized ways of doing things in the agency business. Fabulous business book for marketing folks. Can be digested in six hours or less.

Pretty great YA book!
Set in a near future where corporations work with the Ads-4-Life Council to ensure that every citzen is a productive consumer, Barrett is a freak- he was raised on an isolated compound by a 'cult' who rejected consumer society for a life of almost Amish spareness. When his uncle there dies, he must leave Simplicity for the Chattering World, where his condition as an advertising virgin makes him incredibly valuable to the marketers who study the psychology of persuasion- including his aunt, who heads the Ads-4-Life Council and is hoping for a major presidential appointment.
Taylor, Barrett's cousin has always had everything- but is she who she thinks she is?
An exciting story that leaves the reader with a heightened sense of awareness of how close we really are to this dystopia, and how far away simplicity truly is.

This is a great help to anyone interested in designing logos and identity systems. Top quality reproduction, and large color illustrations are truly an inspiration. The entire series is a must have reference for graphic designers.

Contests are an excellent way to engage their communities, schools, and patrons with what libraries have to offer by way of services and facilities. A superbly organized and presented instruction guidebook, "Library Contests: A How-To-Do-It Manual" provides school and community librarians with step-by-step instructions through all the stages of planning, promoting, budgeting, and running a contest. The essential steps for contest development begin with the selection of a contest planner and choosing a judge, to promoting the contest, defining its theme, defining eligibility criteria for contest participants, and evaluating contest success. Offering a wealth of practical advice, tips, tricks and techniques for mounting an effective contest, librarians are provided with four real-world examples: Earth Day Coloring Contest; Guess the Number of Bricks in the New Library Contest; Create a Clothing Accessory from Duct Tape Contest; and One Book, One City Essay Contest. A very highly recommended reference for Library Science collections, "Library Contests" is an impressive compilation of novel and tested ideas for every category of library whether their contest is to be local, regional, statewide, or even national in scope.

Bravo! What a fine book! Always curious about how to do things better, I picked up this book and then couldn't put it down. You can imagine my delight in learning so many wonderful, insightful ways to showcase my library! These are techniques you'd never think of on your own. I especially appreciated the chapter on volunteer programs. What an innovative way to stretch your meager library dollar! I must admit I thought library public relations would be a cinch for me when I stepped into this field last year. After all, I had been the publicity chair at my local women's club, edited my church newsletter, and raised five children. I said to myself, "What can't I handle?" Well, now I could just kick myself right in the backside. I only wish I had read this book before I made a shambles of my local library. Live and learn, I always say. If you're in my boat, I say read this book, BEFORE, not after, you take a crack at library PR. I thank the good Lord they didn't fire me, and I'm trying my darndest now to undo the mess I've made. Thanks to this book, now I know what to do. Hats off to this author, "a real pro," for sharing her bounty of knowledge!