Tis the season of seductive ads that trip up even the most fiscally disciplined individuals. In reality, advertising is a daily distraction. Mark Tungate, the first author profiled below, cuts to the chase in his introduction: More than wallpaper, advertising is the stuff that surrounds us (p. 2). Profiled below are three new books in the Loop Library that shed light on an industry that influences our culture and our lives.
Even if you weren’t snagged by the Mad Men craze, Tungates informative and entertaining work about the history of the industry will be a rewarding read. He wrote Adland: A Global History of Advertising to fill a surprising gap in the plethora of books published about advertising. Tungate captures our attention by stating that, Advertising is simply one of those industries that make you itch to pull back the curtain and take a good look behind the scenes (p. 4). The authors experience as a media and marketing journalist is evident as he weaves together stories and facts from the many interviews he conducted with players, large and small, in the advertising business to give us this insiders view. Loop Library, Call Number: 659.109 T9266A
Tungate devoted an entire chapter to Leo Burnett, mirroring the agencys influence on the shape of the modern advertising industry. HumanKind, written by Burnett executives Tom Bernardin (CEO and Chairman) and Mark Tutssel (Chief Creative Officer), extends our knowledge of the agency into the 21st century. Leo Burnett shifted its approach in response to the changing economic, technological, and cultural landscapes. Customers are now called people and instead of building brands, the agency focuses on understanding and communicating a brands human purpose and connecting it to the social fabric. Check out this visually enjoyable book that uses quintessential Burnett graphics and images to communicate their commitment to the HumanKind approach. Loop Library, Call Number: 659.1125 B523H
The third book is a compilation of pithy industry axioms communicated through a ubiquitous medium in advertising today: Twitter. These daily tweets began in 2009 from @leeclowsbeard. Lee Clow is an advertising veteran [bearded] whose acclaimed creative campaigns include the 1984 MAC commercial and the iPod silhouettes of the early 2000s; but he was not the voice behind the anonymously authored @leeclowsbeard. Compliments from colleagues on his tweets tipped off Clow to the account and eventually to the tweeter, Jason Fox, a freelance copywriter. They decided to meet and leeclowsbeard was published in 2012. This book exists because of the anonymity of Twitter, but also because Clow and Fox were willing to risk letting go of that anonymity and meet face-to-face. Loop Library, Call Number: 659.1092 L483