Selling the Dream : Why Advertising Is Good Business
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Consultant and journalist Hood reacts to how Americans feel in general about advertising by reminding them that marketing fulfills desires and demand while increasing profits and often making or breaking whole businesses and industries. Along with very well-chosen (and very funny) examples of how Americans feel and deal with advertising as represented in popular culture. Hood is brutally honest about why some may perceive advertising as a trail of lies, showing that in fact the industry is held to a rather strict set of standards and tends to react to that same consumer desire and demand that helps to define it.”–
Book Description
The process of producing goods and services is relatively easy to recognize as socially beneficial. But television ads? Telemarketers? Jingles? Junk mail? It is popular to view these commercial activities as inherently wasteful or manipulative, marginally informative or entertaining, at best. In Selling the Dream, John Hood takes the provocative stand that advertising images and sales pitches are actually part of the goods and services themselves, delivering an essential component of the consumer's experience. As such, they are intextricably linked to the basic tenets of the free-market system, and, in the boldest of terms, Hood argues that commercial communication is morally consistent with the principles of our democractic society, including freedom of choice, competition, and innovation. Tracing the history of advertising from Ancient Roman times to the present, he offers a colorful account of advertising in its cultural context and addresses such controversial issues as the promotion of harmful and "immoral" products (such as alcohol and tobacco), marketing to children, the role of advertising in service industries such as health care and education, and the impact of the Internet and other new media on the conduct of commerce. In the process, he offers a compelling perspective on advertising and its essential role in business, communication, and popular culture.
Selling the Dream : Why Advertising Is Good Business
Selling the Dream : Why Advertising Is Good Business,John Hood,Praeger Publishers,0275984354,Advertising,Advertising & Promotion,Business & Economics,Business / Economics / Finance,Business/Economics,Marketing - General,Social aspects,Business & Economics / Marketing / General
Selling the Dream : Why Advertising Is Good Business
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