The Hidden Persuaders [Mass Market Paperback]

Vance Packard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1958

What makes us buy, believe, even vote, the way we do...

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket; First Separate edition (1958)
• ASIN: B000GR6T70
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,185,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The strip-mining of human nature, December 4, 2002

By 

Stanley Allen (League City, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hidden Persuaders (Paperback)

Written at the cusp of the 'consumer revolution', this book is both a quaint historical piece and a prophesy of what was to come. The tangential thesis of the book is that by the mid-fifties, the standard problems in capitalism -- those of production and distribution of goods -- were solved, but that this introduced another problem: all of these goods must be consumed. So, it became necessary to step up the techniques used to market these goods.

Advertising was nothing new, but the psychological intricacy and sophistication in it was ratcheted up significantly. Using Freud, Jung, and whatever other foundation proved workable, social scientists and psychoanalysts honed their skills to develop an ever-growing repertoire of tricks that would induce us all to spend and consume at ever-higher levels.

Two things make the book relevant today: 1) nothing has changed either in the economic situation or in the techniques, except that both have become even more intense (two thirds of the 2002 U.S. GNP depends on consumer spending); and 2) no other book has yet come forward to do a better job at showing, in great anecdotal detail and for a broad audience, what depth marketing is all about.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Origins of Motivational Research in the U.S., July 31, 1999

By 

Keidi Obi Awadu ([e-mail]) (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden Persuaders (Paperback)

THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS by Vance Packard stands as one of the more eye-opening accounts of the development of the motivational sciences in the 20th Century. What is being described by Packard is the evolution of a systematic relationship between merchandisers of America's then-booming manufacturing industries who teemed up with Madison Avenue-style advertising firms, who themselves were backed by a network of behavioral scientists. As described by Packard, this network not only developed novel and creative ways of reaching into the psyche of its intended target audiance to tap into hidden motivations; but in the process of turning us all into more compliant consumers, so shifted the values of the entire society that they changed American society for all time. Today many of us have virtually succumbed our natural "reality" to a phony existance based upon presenting an image of ourselves to our peers that is actually based upon media and market-generated values. Once we understand the process that created this vast consumer culture, with all it's attendant neuroses, we can then begin to fashion for ourselves a strategy for recovering our basic humanity. What is being described in THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS, is the origins of a system to manipulate us out of that humanity.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A deep look into the mind...., December 7, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Arkansas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden Persuaders (Paperback)

The Hidden Persuaders explores the dark world of advertising and the effects it has upon our minds. Even though it was written originally in 1957, most of its material is still relevant today. At first, one may be lead to the conclusion Vance Packard has gone off the far end with his accusations of subliminal mind control, but he provides so much factual data you finally come to realize this isn't any joking matter. Everyone should read this book, at least to become familiar with its theme, and to increase personal awareness of the underlying messages our minds are exposed to every day. Packard will help you understand virtually hundreds of ways corporations get you to give away your hard earned money readily. He explains not only how companies make you tick, but why they make you tick. After reading the book, you will never watch another commercial or listen to another advertisement the same.