Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good: The Madcap Business Adventure by the Truly Oddest Couple [Hardcover]

Paul Newman (Author), A.E. Hotchner (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 4, 2003

“There are three rules for running a business; fortunately, we don’t know any of them.”


In 1978, Paul Newman and A. E. Hotchner decided that rather than just distribute Paul’s own salad dressing at Christmas to neighbors, they would offer it to a few local stores. Freewheeling, irreverent entrepreneurs, they conceived of their venture as a great way to poke fun at the mundane method of traditional marketing. Much to their surprise, the dressing was enthusiastically received. What had started as a lark quickly escalated into a full-fledged business, the first company to place all-natural foods in supermarkets. From salad dressing to spaghetti sauce, to popcorn and lemonade, Newman’s Own became a major player in the food business. The company’s profits were originally donated to medical research, education, and the environment, and eventually went to the creation of the eight Hole in the Wall Gang camps for children with serious illnesses.

In these pages Newman and Hotchner recount the picaresque saga of their own nonmanagement adventure. In alternating voices, playing off one another in classic “Odd Couple” style, they describe how they systematically disregarded the advice of experts and relied instead on instinct, imagination, and mostly luck. They write about how they hurdled obstacle after obstacle, share their hilarious misadventures, and reveal their offbeat solutions to conventional problems. Even their approach to charity is decidedly different: every year they give away all the company’s profits, empty the coffers, and start over again. The results of this amazing generosity are brought to life in heartwarming stories about the children at their camps.

With rare glimpses into their zany style and their compassion for those less fortunate, Newman and Hotchner have written the perfect nonmanagement book, at once playful, informative, and inspirational.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of the most unusual philanthropic enterprises of the 20th century almost never happened: Newman's Own was the name intended for a restaurant the movie star wanted to open near his home in Westport, Conn. But the idea never went anywhere, freeing up Newman to start a business in the early 1980s with his friend Hotchner, a bestselling author (Papa Hemingway), selling a salad dressing made from Newman's personal recipe. The rest is history. As this breezy memoir recalls, the two broke every rule for launching a new food business, ignoring the failure rate for celebrity-themed products, demanding all-natural ingredients and bypassing nearly every aspect of market research (although they did hold one taste test at the home of local caterer Martha Stewart). Despite all this, they managed to pull in nearly $1 million in profits their first year, all earmarked for charity, and have since launched many more products and donated nearly $140 million. This part of the story doesn't really have a lot of meat to it, but it is an entertaining string of anecdotes, song parodies and wacky customer letters. The book's second half becomes more somber as it shifts focus to the Hole in the Wall Gang, the organization they created to build and run camps for children with serious illnesses. The origins of each of the eight camps are recounted in detail, along with letters from some of the campers. A slew of appendixes, including several recipes utilizing Newman's Own products, rounds out the text.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Movie actor Newman and his writer friend Hotchner broke all the business rules to become significant players in the food industry--and used their profits to open summer camps for critically ill children. They started selling Newman's "home brew" salad dressing in 1982 as a joke, but in the following 20 years they gained national recognition with an expanded product line, allowing them to give away $150 million. Their Hole in the Wall Gang camps (named after the outlaw band led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, immortalized on film by Newman and Robert Redford), which serve children with life-threatening diseases, became very successful. Noted for strict attention to the quality of staff and operations, the camps have been replicated in several states and in other countries, too. This is a witty and inspiring tale, not coincidentally also excellent public relations for the authors, their food products, and their fund-raising efforts for the children's camps. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese; 1 edition (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385508026
• ISBN-13: 978-0385508025
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #419,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Two Men, A Bottle Of Dressing, And A Dream November 15, 2003

By W. C HALL VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This is really several books between one set of covers. The entertaining, highly readable opening segment is the story of two men who didn't just break the rules to achieve business success: they took the rule book, set it on fire, and threw away the ashes. Anyone who has purchased "Newman's Own" products has probably noticed the label notation that all profits from the enterprise go to charity. But have you ever wondered how it all began?

"Newman's Own" wasn't the product of blinding insight or grand design. The story opens in December, 1980, as actor Paul Newman and his neighbor and friend, writer A.E. Hotchner, are hard at work in Newman's barn bottling up a small batch of the salad dressing Newman had created. What had started as a gift for neighbors and friends evolved in a couple of years into a thriving enterprise. We learn how they rejected the advice of the supposed experts in the areas of marketing, production and distribution and forged ahead based on a combination of gut instinct and sometimes blind luck.

As one Newman's Own product after another was added--pasta sauce, popcorn, lemonade--the growth of the enterprise steadily continued, much to the surprise and delight of the founders. For this allowed them to soar far higher with their philanthropic dreams than even they had envisioned.

The tone of adventuresome good humor recedes in the second major section of the book. Although Newman and Hotchner had been, and continue to be supportive of established charities, both felt the need to do something more--and so the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for children with life-threatening illnesses was born. The initial camp soon became a model for others around the country and the world. The plight of these children is exceptionally moving and sad--but the story of the camps is one of hope, love, and affirmation of life.

There are several appendices, including a selection of letters from buyers of "Newman's Own." (Several of these are also quoted in the text. My favorite was from the woman who thought the products were great, and had also heard that Mr. Newman had been in films. She wanted to know what these films were and if any were available on home video.) There are also letters from children and parents about the Hole in the Wall Camp experience, plus some prize winning recipes from a contest "Newman's Own" co-sponsored with Good Housekeeping Magazine.

An entertaining and inspiring story.--William C. Hall

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Entrepreneurship 101 March 30, 2005

By C. Ebeling

Format:Hardcover

Everything I ever needed to know about successful entrepreneurship I learned from SHAMELESS EXPLOITATION. 1) It begins with a creative product, not in the search for a way to make money (sorry, Mr. Sinatra). 2) It begins with a product that fills a hole in a market (in this case, salad dressing made with fresh ingredients, no additives, conspicuously absent from mainstream grocery store shelves back in 1980). 3) Time-honored production and marketing methods can also be time-ragged and not right for your product. 4) Ask questions of everyone you know. 5) Put out a little venture capital and don't overreach (these guys put out $40,000 and lived within those means). 6) Don't compromise the integrity of your product, find ways to accommodate it. 7) There are other ways to publicize the product other than expensive advertising. 8) A movie star's name means nothing; it's all in the product and the hard work that goes into it (sorry, Frank). 9) You have to love and believe in your product. 10) You have to love the process of getting the product out there. 11) If you build it, they will come.

Everything I ever needed to know about pursuing the common good I learned from SHAMELESS EXPLOITATION: 1) Just do it. 2) Invite everyone to participate. 3) Miracles can happen.

Everything you ever needed to know about this book: 1) It's a fast read. 2) It's an honest read. 3) It's an insightful read. 4) It's an inspiring read. 5) The part about the charities served by Newman's own will blow your socks off. 6) The authors are highly entertaining tour guides of their adventure. 7) There are a few recipes to boot. 8) It is refreshingly free of those simplistic aphorisms that plague most business world books.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Humorous Account of New Dimensions for Philanthropy March 18, 2004

By Donald Mitchell HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good details the almost accidental development of the Newman's Own line of foods, its eventual success, and how the founders, Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner, developed a new kind of charity to allow seriously ill children to attend summer camp. The book is filled with humor, good-hearted fun and a will to do good. Most people will find the overall effect to be heart-warming . . . except for the tendency to self-congratulation.

The book's is one part self-deprecating personal narrative, one part "advanced moving and shaking", one part "legend-making" tales, one part "I told you so" to the corporate "experts", one part funny stories from customers and one part business history mixed with two parts serious stories about young peoples' illnesses, three parts lessons about establishing a new charity, with a dash of recipes and cartoons for final humor. The mixture, while quite unusual, has a zestful freshness that leaves a taste for more.

If you are like me, you've never quite understood how Newman's Own came into existence and became a big success. I've tasted some of the products and find them to be of good quality. But there must be something more than that to it.

I was even more surprised to read in past news articles that all profits are distributed to charity annually. "Where in the world did the company get the working capital to stay in business?" was the question on my mind.

I also wondered how anyone would decide which charities to support and which to shun.

Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good answered all those questions and more for me.

I was deeply moved by the tale of starting up and running the Hole in the Wall camps for seriously ill youngsters, and intend to tell others about this good work.

What intrigued me most about the book was that it showed that doing the right thing could be amazingly commonsensical. The products are good because Paul Newman would not be satisfied until he thought they were. The packaging copy and promotional activities are zany, and reflect the good humor of the authors . . . not some copywriter. Profits and cash flow are good because the authors paid attention to setting up their business model so the company would need very little capital. Making the profits go to charity allowed the authors to have fun with the business in a way they could not have done if they had been trying to line their own pockets. The psychic and emotional satisfaction of establishing the camps and helping other charities are probably worth much more than any money can buy.

I hope that other talented people, whether they are prominent or not, will consider how they could follow some parts of what the authors did with their business or their charity. I thank them both for sharing the story in this entertaining book.