Advertising Today Book

Warren Berger's epic manifesto, Advertising Today, combines a defence of one of the most abused modern creative forms with a celebration of all that has been memorable in its last illustrious 40 years. The title seems appropriate for what is often seen as a transitory, disposable medium, but the magnificent bounty of classic images reproduced here reminds us just how enduring its best examples can be. Among the key players interviewed is Jerry Seinfeld, whose claim that he would have worked in advertising if he'd not made it in comedy, harks back to the ad boom of the 1960s, initiated by precisely such wisecracking, wry copywriters. Berger's own pithy copy expounds the amorphous philosophies of the advertising fraternity, where the unexpected has become the staple fare. But is it art? It depends who you listen to. According to director Tarsem Singh, art is a four letter word, whereas Oliviero Toscanini, head of infamous ad-prop company Benetton, laments the movement from art to salesmanship, resulting in, he thinks, "ugly and boring" work. The best chapters focus on the advent of Oddvertising, public service information, guerrilla advertising, the selling of milk across the globe (the quintessential everyday, non-sexy product), and the inevitable case study of Nike, whose tag, "Just Do It", dreamt up in just 15 minutes, touched a universal carpe diem nerve more keenly than a mountain of self-help manuals. Berger constantly references the interrelation between cinema and advertising, a symbiotic partnership that now sees the golden son leading the silver screen in technology and innovation, and he writes particularly well on recent developments, such as Internet advertising, the potential of interactive television (also explored by Michael Lewis in The Future Just Happened , and campaigns to jump-start the most valuable and elusive marketing quality, word of mouth (something Malcolm Gladwell brilliantly analyses in The Tipping Point. You may consider, like one publisher quoted in the book, that the creative people have taken over the asylum, but this captivating gallery of iconic images reminds us that at its best (about 5 per cent of all ads, Berger judges), advertising can be vastly entertaining, inspirational, and pricelessly durable, as well as shifting milk.--David VincentRead More