Customer Reviews

Selling Out: If Famous Authors Wrote Advertising

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This book is hilarious; the author rewrites well known product commercials using the style of a famous writer. Two excerpts are:

Tony Tiger (in the style of William Blake)

Tony Tiger, goodness sakes,
Eats a bowl of frosted flakes;
What brave artist dared create
The mighty beast who roars "They're G-R-R_REAT!"


A Tale of Two Deodorants ( in the style of Charles Dickens)

It was the best of smells, it was the worst of smells, it was the age of fragrance, it was the age of stench, it was the epoch of good hygiene, it was the epoch of wretched body odors, it was the season of Cleanliness, it was the season of Perspiration, it was the spring of freshness, . . .

This is one of the best spoofs of pop culture, if commercials can be elevated to that level, that I have ever encountered. We all complain about how annoying commercial advertising is, Green has done something about it. He has lampooned then by using the styles of the master writers of history.

I was really excited when I heard about this book and picked up a copy for myself only to find that half of the works fell miserably flat. Maybe I just missed the humor, but nothing in this book struck me as really imaginative or funny. It looked more like someone threw darts at ideas instead of putting thought into which author was writing each ad. Not only that, but my unfamiliarity with some of the authors and the short length of the book didn't help. I wanted something a little longer, but this had very few authors in it, and with all the famous writers out there I should think they could have come up with a few more.

I think it was worth the $0.50 to satisfy my curiousity but I'm going to give it away.