A skillfully written, if sometimes-uncritical, advertising history.
A marketing expert examines the intersection of World War II and various American brands.
As a historian with 40 years of experience in the marketing arena, Silversteinis keenly aware of the centrality of branding to 20th-century advertising. Here, he centers World War II as the catalyst for the later state of that industry. However, the work begins with World War I, during which the government launched an extensive advertising campaign that ranged from the famous “I Want You for U.S. Army” poster to conservationist appeals to consumers to eat corn flakes instead of wheat-based cereals. This initial foray into wartime propaganda with advertisers and private companies was “perfected” during World War II, Silverstein says. Moreover, the author points out how many American companies used the conflict to boost profits. For instance, a centerpiece of Coca-Cola’s branding was its pledge “that every soldier in the field would be able to buy a Coke for a nickel.” This campaign, the author notes, secured Coca-Cola 64 new bottling plants in Europe, including some personally requested by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Other products, from Jeeps to M&Ms, were first created for wartime use. The book concludes with the rise of modern advertising in the 1950s and ’60s, fueled by an economic and consumerist boom that was itself a product of the war. Three dozen print-ad reproductions complement the book’s engaging writing style, which sometimes tends toward nostalgia: “If you’re over sixty-five years of age, you are likely to remember a number of these brands and their catchy television jingles from your childhood.” Overall, it’s a convincing history about the role of World War II in developing brand consciousness among consumers in the United States. However, aside from looking at the “Dark Side” of branding in a chapter on corporate partnerships with Nazi Germany, it approaches most advertising campaigns with dewy-eyed sentimentality. Discerning readers may desire deeper analysis of the negative ramifications of business-government partnerships inside the U.S., which gave rise to the corporatization of the postwar American economy.
A skillfully written, if sometimes-uncritical, advertising history.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9965760-8-6
Page Count: -
Publisher: GuideWords Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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