Image Makers : Advertising, Public Relations, and the Ethos of Advocacy

Rating:
Summary: A Penetrating Analysis
Review: I couldn't disagree more with the first assessment of this book. Yes, if you are in the PR or advertsing business and are looking for specific tactics to become more effective in your vocation, this is not the book for you. I can imagine there are hundreds if not thousands of books that offer this sort of information.

However, if you are seeking an intellectual and exceptionally insightful analysis about the origins of advertising and public relations and how these advocacy disciplines affect all aspects of our political and social lives, then I would highly recommend this book.

Although this book is definetely complex, it is an extremely interesting eye opener about a society that is hooked on images. By breaking down the way in which special interests and political groups use advocacy to promote and legitimize their own agendas and political interests, he exposes a world that makes you realize that much of the what we see and hear in the media are merely images of what advocates want us to see. He does this in a rational investigation of our democratic evolution and not so much an indictment of the advertsing and PR disciplines.

Enlightening and Fascinating, though, I do believe, however, that he walks the line of becoming perhaps a bit too cynical at times.

Rating:
Summary: A pedantic work to be read with a dictionary or just skip it
Review: I was terribly disappointed in this book. I thought it would reflect some information useable in the daily application of the advertising or PR trade as I am a consultant. Although it shows "Advertising, Public Relations..."as part of its subtitle on the cover, very few chapters actually pertain to either. And those that appear are merely historical tracings of people like the author's pet, Bill Bernbach and his agency. The use of hightened vocabulary was not necessary. It was as if the authors were showing off their linguistic prowess rather than reaching their general audience. I should have known better than to buy this book when I read the reviews from MIT, Princeton...need I say more about "ivory tower" scholarship.

Rating:
Summary: A Penetrating Analysis
Review: I was terribly disappointed in this book. I thought it would reflect some information useable in the daily application of the advertising or PR trade as I am a consultant. Although it shows "Advertising, Public Relations..."as part of its subtitle on the cover, very few chapters actually pertain to either. And those that appear are merely historical tracings of people like the author's pet, Bill Bernbach and his agency. The use of hightened vocabulary was not necessary. It was as if the authors were showing off their linguistic prowess rather than reaching their general audience. I should have known better than to buy this book when I read the reviews from MIT, Princeton...need I say more about "ivory tower" scholarship.