A pioneering work from the 1960s about how the rapid growth of disposable consumer goods degraded the environmental, financial and spiritual character of western society. It exposed the increasing commercialisation of American life, when people bought things they didn't need or want. It also highlighted the concept of planned obsolescence, the 'death date' built into products. This prescient study predicted the rise of consumer culture and features an introduction by bestselling author Bill McKibben.

Vance Packard's bestselling books--Hidden Persuaders (1957), Status Seekers (1959), and Waste Makers (1960)--taught the generation that came of age in the late 1950s and early 1960s about the dangers posed by advertising, social climbing, and planned obsolescence. Like Betty Friedan and William H. Whyte, Jr., Packard (1914- ) was a journalist who played an important role in the nation's transition from the largely complacent 1950s to the tumultuous 1960s. He was also one of the first social critics to benefit from and foster the newly energized social and political consciousness of this period. Based in part on interviews with Packard, Daniel Horowitz's intellectual biography focuses on the period during which Packard left magazine writing to author his most famous works of social criticism. Horowitz traces the influence of Packard's education and early years in rural Pennsylvania, providing a deeper understanding of his thought and his later books. Packard's life, Horowitz contends, illuminates the dilemmas of a freelance social critic without inherited wealth or academic affiliation. His career also expands our understanding of how one era shaped the next, underscoring how the adversarial 1960s drew on the mass culture of the previous decade. Originally published in 1994. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

A discussion of how modern advertising attempts to control our thoughts and desires in order to make us buy the products it produces. Exploring the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including subliminal tactics, this book shows how advertisers secretly manipulate mass desire for consumer goods and products. In addition, Packard also discusses advertising in politics, predicting the way image and personality rapidly came to overshadow real issues in the televised age.

Originally published: New York: Metropolitan Books, 1999.

The 1960s provides Warlaumont with the backdrop for examining the struggle of advertising during the anti-establishment movement in one of America's most colorful but turbulent decades. Targeted by the counterculture, threatened with government regulation, criticized as a waste maker by social critics, weakened by internal strife between the liberal and traditional forces within the industry, and faced with the consumption-weary public, advertising faced one of its most challenging times. Yet surprisingly, it made history with its unprecedented creativity and innovation during the 60s. Distancing itself from the Establishment, advertising, as a wolf in sheep's clothing, joined the cultural revolution, changed the way it related to its audience, and attempted to seduce consumers with humor, resonance, candidness, and a power-to-the-people approach. Masking its ultimate goal to maintain, preserve, and promote the consumption ethic and business elite, advertising joined an infectious wave to overturn the old and stodgy ways. Becoming a turncoat by appearing to abandon its traditional materialistic and authoritarian stance—even mimicking it in some instances—advertising became a cause celebre with its colorful and humorous campaigns, validating itself while under fire. Using the 60s as a backdrop, Warlaumont examines the struggle of a traditional institution during one of America's most turbulent decades. Scholars, students, and researchers involved with business, communications, and advertising history as well as the general public interested in the 1960s will find this study fascinating.

Examines the invasion of privacy in the United States by government, business, and education. Describes surveillance techniques and tools of investigative experts.