Customer Reviews

Advertising Pure and Simple

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Give your spouse this test the next time you watch a commercial break on TV; ask him/her what general product the previous commercial was advertising and specifically what brand it was. If they can guess the first one, its an exceptional commercial, if they know the second one it was an extraordinary commercial, but if they know both and are furthermore encouraged to try the product, chances are the advertiser read this book. Seiden does an outstanding and convincing job at defining effective advertising, ads which you remember, and which demonstrate a unique product advantage (UPA). This approach/philosophy gained dominate acceptance in the 1950s but has been all but lost in todays trendy advertising marketplace. Seiden's book is very readable and really hits home. It was my inspiration to enter the advertising field and provides a clear focus and direction in the profession. My only criticism comes with Seiden's second half of the book where he attempts to convince his readers of the necessity to also make ads political correct. Although its true that advertisers need to evaluate their ads from both sides of the political spectrum, Seiden seems to use the 2nd half of his book as an opportunity to express his ideological views alone. The first half of his book is tremendous, and wholly complete. But skip the second half, you can catch it on Geraldo.