The Future Ain't What It Used To Be [Paperback]

Larry Samuel (Author), Vickie Abrahamsom (Author), Mary Meehan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1999

"Iconoculture knows what's hot, " says Harvey Mackay. So it's not surprising that organizations ranging from Saatchi & Saatchi to Coca-Cola to The Rockport Company have turned to this three-person consulting firm, for their combined half-century of marketing experience as well as their up-to-the-minute knowledge of today's trends. This guide, as lively as it is informative, introduces readers to such phenomena as "beehives, " "technomorphing, " and "soul searching"--and shows businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and ordinary folk how to surf the culture waves...and respond to change with smart, profitable strategies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade; Reprint edition (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573227188
• ISBN-13: 978-1573227186
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,615,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wacky encyclopedia of pop culture!, May 8, 1999

By 

Elizabeth Rhodes ([e-mail]) (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Future Ain't What It Used To Be (Paperback)

This wacky encyclopedia of pop culture makes E. D. Hirsh's, dictionary of Cultural Literacy seem like a period piece. Meehan, Samuel and Abrahamson have outsmarted the smarty pants of trend watchers. They offer 40 transforming trends of the future and describe them within the context of America's 10 passion points: mind, body, spirit, experience, identity, society, nature, relationships, fear and technology. The author/trend watchers describe future phenomenon. Coined with new vocabulary, a sample of the cultural trends are: "virtual vertigo", the society-wide values breakdown experienced by Americans as a sense of dislocation and restlessness; "zentrepreneurism", the fusion of personal vision and professional mission, typically with activism as instrumental part; and "technomorphing", the effects of warp-speed technological change on our lives and translation of such change in human terms. Others trends that can inform the marketing moguls who should read this book are: "gaia", the symbiotic relationship between humans and the Earth, and the belief that the planet is a living, breathing, feeling organism; and, "cultural infidelity", proactive interest in experiencing multiple cultures and new cultural hybrids grounded in popular and consumer culture. Readers of this book can also culturally climax in the marketing opportunities identified as "iconogasms."

The new economy seems to be the motivator behind the tidbits of trend wisdom contained in this wonderfully hyper and often irreverent entertaining read. Therefore, there the cultural climate of the "have-nots" of the future received little attention. Could it be that the authors subconsciously adopted another one of Yogi Berra's often used quotes, "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded?"