A critical and entertaining exploration of advertising and its influence. For children growing up in an advertising-saturated world, here’s an eye-opening explanation of what it is, how it works and why that matters. The book covers everything from the components of an ad campaign to the ways marketers seek to influence behavior, then brings it all to life by creating two fictional advertising plans. It also describes how digital technology allows companies to track people and how that impacts privacy. It’s a savvy look at the business of advertising that empowers kids to think critically and be discerning. Kids are suckers for advertising? Not the ones who read this book!

Much has been written about the men and women who shaped the field of advertising, some of whom became legends in the industry. However, the contributions of African-American women to the advertising business have largely been omitted from these accounts. Yet, evidence reveals some trailblazing African-American women who launched their careers during the 1960s Mad Men era, and went on to achieve prominent careers. This unique book chronicles the nature and significance of these women’s accomplishments, examines the opportunities and challenges they experienced and explores how they coped with the extensive inequities common in the advertising profession. Using a biographical narrative approach, this book examines the careers of these important African-American women who not only achieved managerial positions in major mainstream advertising agencies but also established successful agencies bearing their own names. Based on their words and memories, this study reveals experiences which are intriguing, triumphant, bittersweet and sometimes tragic. These women’s stories comprise a vital part of the historical narrative on women and African-Americans in advertising and will be instructive not only to scholars of advertising and marketing history but to future generations of advertising professionals.

A bestselling author and advertising veteran shares a life’s lessons from the ad trade. Dave Marinaccio, cofounder and the creative director of LMO Advertising, is a veteran of the industry who, as a young man starting out, studied stand-up at Second City in Chicago. He later wrote an international bestseller, All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek. His equally entertaining new book takes us inside the world of advertising, offering stories and observations from his three decades at some of America's best-known agencies, working with clients from Pizza Hut to the Holocaust Museum. In short, punchy chapters, Dave pulls back the curtain and shares his insights on how marketing decisions are made and other lessons. His topics range from logos, the big idea, and selling perfume to how we undervalue our gifts, to do-overs, celebrities, and "meetingsmanship." And more than a few lessons turn out to be apt not just for business but for our stressed-out lives. Admen, Mad Men, and the Real World of Advertising is written to be easily digestible by interns, CEOS, or anyone who has ever watched a television commercial or clicked on a banner ad. Irreverent, packed with useful information, and unflinchingly honest, it is a serious business book by a seriously funny man and a must for anyone who lives, works, or plays in today's commercial culture.

Maas offers a wickedly funny, inside look at what it was really like to be an ad woman on Madison Avenue in the 1960s and 1970s, from casual sex to professional serfdom, in this immensely entertaining and bittersweet memoir.

DIVA thrilling and irreverent memoir about the transformation of the advertising business from the 1980s to today /divDIV/divDIVRichard Kirshenbaum was born to sell. Raised in a family of Long Island strivers, this future advertising titan was just a few years old when his grandfather first taught him that a Cadillac is more than a car, and that if you can’t have a Trinitron you might as well not watch TV. He had no connections when he came to Madison Avenue, but he possessed an outrageous sense of humor that would make him a millionaire./divDIV /divDIVIn 1987, at the age of twenty-six, Richard put his savings on the line to launch his own agency with partner Jonathan Bond, and within a year, had transformed it from a no-name firm into the go-to house for cutting-edge work. Kirshenbaum and Bond pioneered guerilla marketing by purchasing ad space on fruit, spray-painting slogans on the sidewalk, and hiring actors to order the Hennessy martini in nightclubs. They were the bad boys of Madison Avenue—a firm where a skateboarding employee once bowled over an important client—but backed up their madness with results./divDIV /divDIVPacked with business insight, marketing wisdom, and a cast of characters ranging from Princess Diana to Ed McMahon, this memoir is as bold, as breathtaking, and as delightful as Richard himself./div

"MADvertising" showcases the very best of "MAD"'s fifty-plus years of takeoffs on Madison Avenue. Fans will love these hundreds of spoofs of legendary ad campaigns, plus hilarious behind-the-scenes interviews with the Usual Gang of Idiots. But wait, there's more! Get ready for two Galleries of Sin, featuring every twist on cigarette and alcohol advertising ever done by the magazine; a section highlighting "legitimate" ads by "MAD" artists; a discussion of "MAD"'s longtime no-advertising policy; plus (yes!) all-time favorite takeoffs on Madison Avenue culture, including the immortal musical "My Fair Ad Man" and "The "MAD" Madison Avenue Primer."

Outlines the history and purpose of advertising, discusses target audiences, the techniques advertisers use, hidden advertisements, limits on advertising, and ways to strike back at advertisers, and suggests related activities.