Customer Reviews

Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I think it would actually be a lot more interesting talking to the authors than reading their book, which is mainly a collection of short essays on a variety of advertising topics. Many of them are quite funny, like a marketing party for scotch at the Playboy mansion, a review of ad mascots through the years, and renaming SUVs to name a few. However, there isn't a lot of deep criticism of the damage of advertising in American culture. The book reads like a very well researched college paper, but don't expect to find a wealth of new theories on how advertising works, or how to avoid its traps.

While I have not been a reader of StayFree Magazine, I picked up this book as a potential candidate for my bookclub to read. By the end of it, I was enlightened as to how I and certainly millions of others have been brainwashed by the advertising industry. I wanted to cry out "how stupid I have been!" I am in my 60s and have been subjected to advertising since TV first became available, well before "I could read a magazine." I have a collection of old Life magazines my in-laws had collected back to 1939. It was very interesting to look back at old ads and see the progression to the "harder subliminal sell" of this century. I think "Ad Nauseum" by Carrie McLaren noted this very same progression with a keen and studied approach. I fear for the children of the last few decades as to how their little brains are so completely controlled by the "next must have toy or article of clothing." We have pretty much all experienced seeing a child in almost any store throwing a tantrum to have mommy or daddy buy something the child has seen advertised or that every other friend has. Though my children are grown into their 30's now, I still see their minds being controlled by the latest must have electronic devices and clothing. Ms. McLaren has put forth a very interesting and provocative subject of which most of us have been totally unaware.

I was required to read this book for a class and I found it to be informative yet playful. Ad Nauseam opens your eyes to aspects of advertising that you don't often think about while using humor to keep your attention. I also like the layout of the book. It's full of images of ridiculous ads and humorous mini quizzes. Not much was said in the postscript on how the problems with advertising can be changed, but overall I think it is very insightful especially for a high school student or college freshman. The book contains some important general information such as some of the history of advertising, subliminal advertising, and the psychology behind advertising. It then includes entertaining short chapters to help illustrate the bigger view and to poke fun at advertising. It is a simple read but I can appreciate that. The authors want the readers to have fun with this book but at the same time learn a thing or too about this crazy world that we live in. The goal of the book is awareness which it does successfully.

I have never posted a review on here, but I feel like I have to for this book because it's that awesome. Read it!

I'm a longtime reader of Stay Free!, and one of my favorite things about both Ad Nauseam and the 'zine on which it's based is that -- unlike a lot of critiques of consumer/late-capitalist culture -- it approaches its subject with fascination and a sense of humor. Clearly the authors/editors are critical of our ad-saturated culture, but in place of the grim, apocalyptic tone of a lot of these kinds of works, there is a sense of bemusement, and genuine wonder at the weirdness with which we've surrounded ourselves. This is not to say that McLaren and Torchinsky haven't done their homework -- there's really substantial research here, and you'll definitely learn something. But you'll actually have fun doing it! In addition to being dangerous and exploitative, consumer culture is, after all, incredibly goofy. My biggest dilemma with this book is whether to shelve it next to Naomi Klein's No Logo or my Onion books.

The useful part of this book is the five page postscript in which the authors list a few organizations that work to improve advertising and the "consumer culture." The remainder of the book is composed of advertising history, anecdotes, and reprints from the authors' previous magazine and blog (70% of the book's material, according to the authors). The authors state that the way to solve the "consumer culture" problem is to change corporate bylaws, pass legislation, and set new boundaries and rules, but also indicate that they don't do this themselves. Other approaches the authors are fans of are of the "stuff a return postage paid envelope with as much material as possible and send it back to the company" variety.

For a book that purports to be "A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture," this book is short on practical advice and instead contains a good deal of advertising by way of mentioning numerous brands and brand name merchandise. In some of the articles where the focus is not on a specific manufacturer, is it really necessary to mention the brand name of an item, rather than simply referring to it generically as air freshener, tissue or cereal? Some of the anecdotes and articles read more as if they were created for product placement than for educating the reader.

Having been a long-time reader of Carrie and Jason going back to the newsprint edition of Stay Free! in Chapel Hill during my college days and its subsequent metamorphoses, I've gotta say this book is great. Never ones to shy away from calling corporate culture on its BS, the material here is funny, subversive and eye-opening. While it may not come with an Evil Weiner/Spatula split single, it does contain a lot of info presented in an engaging manner that will definitely make you think twice about buying anything.

Makes a lot of factual claims, but never really takes the time to objectively source or cite them.

This book is for my Writing Class, and describes interesting facts about consumerism with simple statistis, observations, and analysis to understand how our consumer world works. It has a mixture of older ads and newer media examples that keep you interested throughout the book.

This book is informative and readable- it is definatley not the "textbook" one might fear it to be. Although I might not agree with every word (and would a book like that actually be enjoyable, or just pap?), Carrie Mclaren's writing style is humorous and informative without being pretentious or preachy. Overall, I found the book to be an enjoyable challenge to what I believed to be true about advertising and our society.