Customer Reviews

Breaking Up America: Advertisers and the New Media World

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Great book. Actually, it was recommended by Amazon as I was unfamiliar with the author, but very interested in the topic. If you are in media, communications or marketing this book analyzes the industry in a very granular way - like looking under the hood. However, Turow does not get so lost in detail, he brings the big picture into focus suggesting the cultural implications of market segmentation, database marketing, media audience packaging and the rise of niche content media like cable TV, magazines and of course the Internet. Transient echoes of Marshall MacLuhan and Tony Shwartz's concept of narcissism. There's passive reference to Peppers & Rodgers concept of image tribes - what happens when everyone's information and entertainment is personalized or filtered by agents, i.e. media effectively throwing up a mirror? Great for marketers, but it does have major socio-political implications. Turow has done a great deal of primary research interviewing people from all aspects of the business. 100% all beef.

I recently read this book. It has a great history of the advertising agency. Many of the ways in which the author thinks shed light on the recent history of advertising. A few of the chapters in the second half of the book are outdated now, since it was predicting the future. For instance, the predictions of the internet "newsgroups" will be big for establishing communities of users, could be converted into blogs. The last chapter is good on the tribalism of advertising. I would suggest the first few chapters and the last chapter to anyone who wants to understand what is going on and will continue for the next decade or so as advertising changes to favor the consumer.