Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture
With the style and irreverence of Vice magazine and the critique of the corporatocracy that made Naomi Klein’s No Logo a global hit, the cult magazine Stay Free!—long considered the Adbusters of the United States—is finally offering a compendium of new and previously published material on the impact of consumer culture on our lives. The book questions, in the broadest sense, what happens to human beings when their brains are constantly assaulted by advertising and corporate messages. Most...
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With the style and irreverence of Vice magazine and the critique of the corporatocracy that made Naomi Klein’s No Logo a global hit, the cult magazine Stay Free!—long considered the Adbusters of the United States—is finally offering a compendium of new and previously published material on the impact of consumer culture on our lives. The book questions, in the broadest sense, what happens to human beings when their brains are constantly assaulted by advertising and corporate messages. Most people assert that advertising is easily ignored and doesn’t have any effect on them or their decision making, but Ad Nauseam shows that consumer pop culture does take its toll.In an engaging, accessible, and graphically appealing style, Carrie McLaren and Jason Torchinsky (as well as contributors such as David Cross, The Onion’s Joe Garden, The New York Times’s Julie Scelfo, and others) discuss everything from why the TV program CSI affects jury selection, to the methods by which market researchers stalk shoppers, to how advertising strategy is like dog training. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening account of the many ways consumer culture continues to pervade and transform American life. Library Journal McLaren and Torchinsky (Stay Free! magazine) provide a loose collection of essays and interviews to critique various aspects of American consumer culture. Two of the more thought-provoking entries are Julie Scelfo's (Newsweek) interview with NYU law professor Richard Sherwin on how television legal dramas shape expectations of jurors, and a debate between Sut Jhally (communications, Univ. of Massachusetts-Amherst) and James Twichell (English & advertising, Univ. of Florida-Gainesville) about the relative merits and demerits of advertising. There are some interesting pieces from inside the world of advertising, such as one on how holidays like "National Denim Day" and "National Private Investigators' Day" came to be, and others related to how magazine media kits try to attract ad revenue. VERDICT Readers familiar with Stay Free! magazine will recognize that, while some notable original essays are included in this book, many of them, as well as fake advertisements, are reprints of material freely available on Stay Free!'s web site (www.stayfreemagazine.org). The book will appeal to readers with an ironic sense of humor or a general suspicion of consumerism as well as those who enjoy keeping track of popular culture.—Elizabeth L. Winter, Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta
Foreword Rob Walker xiPreface xv1 How Advertising WorksThe Evolution of Advertising 3The Psychology of Advertising: We're All Apes 9Advertising: The Ultimate Dog Whisperer 19Image is Everything: Why the Adman Prefers Pictures 22Truth in Advertising Case Study: Baby Videos (or, Humans' Capacity for Believing the Unbelievable) 26Brand Magic 33Key Questions 362 How Consumer Culture Shapes PeopleYour Ad Here: As Advertisers Race to Cover Every Available Surface, Are They Making Us Insane? 43A Slow-Creeping Brain Death: Is Consumer Culture Rotting Our Minds? 49Language Skills Then and Now 64I'm with the Brand: The Consumer as Fan 70Disneyaniacs! An Interview with the Little Mermaid's Biggest Fan 75Regarding Media Violence: Why Do We Have Such a Tough Time Believing that People Imitate What They Watch? 81The Media Made Them Do It 84The Media Made Me Do It 90Key Questions 943 Consumer Culture and SocietyShopping for Cancer: Why Economists Love Bellyaches, Bedbugs, and Broken Homes Jonathan Rowe 103L.A. Law: How Hollywood is Shaping Our Legal System Julie Scelfo 115How Do Kids Read Commercials? Roy Fox 127On Advertising: Sut Jhally Versus James Twitchell 138Did Somebody Say "Community"? Leslie Savan 154A Vehicle for Comparison: The Volkswagen as a Measure of All Things Chris Boznos 160Key Questions 1674 Behind the ScenesMy Very Special Trip to the Nike Store David Cross 176How to Tell You're a Details Reader (and Other Secrets of Magazine Advertising) 179I'm Dreaming of a White National Cheese Day Alan Benson 190Shopping Spies: Why is That Man Staringat Me? 201Coca-Cola and the Case of the Disappearing Water Glass 206Key Questions 2095 Down the Memory HoleGrave Revisionism: Advertising Resurrects the Dead 217Subliminal Seduction: How Did the Uproar over Subliminal Manipulation Affect the Ad Industry? 223The Idiot Consumer: Advertisers Once Described Typical Consumers as Barnyard Animals and Morons, but Then They Got "Savvy" 247Everything I Learned About Life I Learned from Medical Marketing 263Corporate Mascots, Then and Now 276Key Questions 2806 Adventures in MedialandBuyer Beware: How Do Supermarket Shoppers React When You Place Foreign Objects in Their Baskets? Gaylord Fields 288True Gentleman Urinates on Dumpster: Jason Torchinsky Tours the Playboy Mansion 292Letter to the Creative Pretzel Eater's Club Damian Chadwick 298Anal-yzing Car Consumption Kembrew McLeod 300Prankster Sir Jon Hargrave Speaks 302MeBay!: eBay for Fun and Profit Joe Garden 310Drive-thru Entertainment 316Key Questions 319Postscript 325Notes 331Acknowledgments 337
\ Library JournalMcLaren and Torchinsky (Stay Free! magazine) provide a loose collection of essays and interviews to critique various aspects of American consumer culture. Two of the more thought-provoking entries are Julie Scelfo's (Newsweek) interview with NYU law professor Richard Sherwin on how television legal dramas shape expectations of jurors, and a debate between Sut Jhally (communications, Univ. of Massachusetts-Amherst) and James Twichell (English & advertising, Univ. of Florida-Gainesville) about the relative merits and demerits of advertising. There are some interesting pieces from inside the world of advertising, such as one on how holidays like "National Denim Day" and "National Private Investigators' Day" came to be, and others related to how magazine media kits try to attract ad revenue. VERDICT Readers familiar with Stay Free! magazine will recognize that, while some notable original essays are included in this book, many of them, as well as fake advertisements, are reprints of material freely available on Stay Free!'s web site (www.stayfreemagazine.org). The book will appeal to readers with an ironic sense of humor or a general suspicion of consumerism as well as those who enjoy keeping track of popular culture.—Elizabeth L. Winter, Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta\ \
