Moscow Meets Madison Avenue: The Adventures of the First American Adman in the U.S.S.R [Hardcover]

Gary Burandt (Author), Nancy Giges (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992

Tells the fascinating, humorous story of the author's attempt to open the Soviet Union's first Western ad agency in the wake of glasnost and perestroika and the many obstacles officials placed in his way. National ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Burandt, unfortunately, fails to cap his claimed distinction as "first American adman in the U.S.S.R." with a first-rate book about it. The Soviet Union was still extant when the Young and Rubicam agency opened a Moscow branch, the joint venture Y & R/Sovero; 18 months later, when Burandt turned the office over to his successor in April, 1990, the agency's ledgers showed a ruble profit and a dollar loss, and clients included Kodak, Xerox and Rodale Press. How it all came about ought to make an exciting, instructive tale, but Burandt and Giges, an Advertising Age editor, present a product that's likely to be a hard sell. The book's chronology is haphazard and the material covered repetitive. Yet there are wonderful anecdotes here about the frustrations of finding and equipping an office in Moscow, training a Russian staff, bribing Soviet bureaucrats (Y & R/Sovero could procure a telex number only with the pay-off of a woman's blue sweater, size 14). And poignant to read about is the agency's Colgate launch giving away 70,000 "tiny" tubes of toothpaste, for which Muscovites happily queued up for hours; astonishing is the tampon campaign for Johnson & Johnson after competitor Tampax, which introduced the product there, sold two million boxes in three days. J & J had planned to price its tampon at one ruble, until women, who previously had to rely on home-prepared rags, told market researchers that they would gladly pay up to five rubles. Perhaps it should be suggested to Boris Yeltsin that priority production of sanitary napkins could salvage the Russian economy? Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Burandt was assigned the task of opening the Moscow office of Young and Rubicam in 1988, a time of rapid change in the Soviet Union. His office was the first advertising agency in the world's most challenging marketplace--challenging because the concepts of choice and brand products were unknown; because of the difficulty of introducing market research in a country where people routinely lie to protect themselves and where advertised products are not available; and because advertising was defined in the Soviet Encyclopedia as recently as the 1940s as "swindling." Gorbachev's desire to move to a free market system changed all that, and a joint venture with a State trading company made Burandt the first Western ad man in Moscow. Burandt tells his story in an anecdotal style, and while he does not give do's and dont's and how-to's, he does present an extraordinary glimpse of capitalism's pioneering efforts in penetrating a planned economy. While not an essential purchase, Burandt's entertaining book presents a historical snapshot of a society at a point of monumental change.
- William W. Sannwald, San Diego P.L.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887305709
• ISBN-13: 978-0887305702
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,973,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.