Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign [Paperback]

Randall Rothenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1995

Rothenberg chronicles the brief, turbulent marriage between a recession-plagued auto company and an aggressively hip ad agency (whose creative director despised cars), capturing both the ad world's tantalizing gossip and the broader significance of its creations. "Simply the best book about advertising I have ever read."--Neil Postman (Technopoly).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former New York Times advertising columnist Rothenberg details the brief and disastrous marriage between the struggling Subaru corporation and the hip ad agency it hired to revive its image.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Rothenberg chronicles the brief, turbulent marriage between a recession-plagued auto company and an aggressively hip ad agency (whose creative director despised cars), capturing both the ad world's tantalizing gossip and the broader significance of its creations. "Simply the best book about advertising I have ever read."--Neil Postman (Technopoly).

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (October 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679740422
• ISBN-13: 978-0679740421
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of tangents, still relevant, August 14, 2005

By 

Avi Greengart (Teaneck, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign (Paperback)

Let's get this out in the open now: this is a book about an ad campaign that's now over 10 years old. It wasn't a successful ad campaign that "changed the world" or is remembered all that fondly, so if you're looking for beach reading, this probably isn't it. Also, I found the style somewhat overwraught - the author had a tendency to lose the core narrative in order to provide lengthy asides, mini-history lessons, musings on the tao of advertising, and comprehensive lists when summaries would do (yes, yes, we know, you were THERE. That doesn't mean we need a word for word transcription!).

That said, this is still a brilliant book. By example, it shows what advertising can and cannot do. The real crux of the story is something most books of this ilk gloss over: the internal politics at the agency and struggle between pleasing themselves (and retaining their sanity) and pleasing a client that essentially could not be pleased; the conflict between a manufacturer and its foreign parent; the conflict between a manufacturer and its dealers. All this may be old, but it is still relevant, and quite compelling. It also is underscored throughout by the unresolved conflict between product-based selling (if you have the right product, will it sell itself?) and image-based selling (can advertising drive sales, or just reinforce them?) -- which is as timely as always.

The hardcover version I read desperately needs an updated Epilogue discussing the success of the Paul Hogan Outback campaign in relation to the failure of the SVX. Was it just a better product at a better point in the economic cycle? Did S.O.A. finally create products targeting broader U.S. consumer tastes? Or did the spokesman model work better than W&K's anti-advertising spin?

-avi

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for anyone interested in advertising, marketing, March 1, 2000

By 

the_global_village_idiot (Hanover, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign (Paperback)

I remember it well: a dramatic image of a sleek black car, against a black background; a gruff world-weary voice dissing conventional auto advertising; an arresting multi-layered scroll of selected text over the fixed image, corresponding directly with the voiceover as the words were read... and remember thinking: "this is an amazing ad. This ad will be incredibly influential."

It was, too, insofar as it almost immediately spawned similar art direction for a host of other products. Only problem was: it didn't sell cars.

"Where the Suckers Moon" explains why. It explains every aspect of the businesses involved -- how car sales are based on image, not mechanics, and and how automobile advertising became the holy grail for agencies.

You learn all about Subaru, and how their corporate structure all but guaranteed failure. You learn about the hubris and arrogance of Weiden and Kennedy, the "hot shop" selected to create the doomed campaign. You learn about how cars have been sold in the past, and gain understanding into how they're sold today.

The lessons pointed out in "Where the Suckers Moon" are relevant for other businesses as well, because the book almost painfully explores the human dynamics of the company that created the product, the company chosen for promoting those sales, and the dramatic and catastrophic effects of a lack of alignment between the two parties. It can -- and does -- happen elsewhere. So don't imagine that you won't get anything out of it simply because you aren't directly dependent on cars or advertising for your bread and butter.

Failings? It's longer than it needs to be, and sometimes veers into philosophical discussions of advertising which clearly reveal the author's own biases. As such, it does somewhat undermine its own attempts at reportorial quality. This is a bit disappointing, because the research is spectacular -- the access that the author had to the entire process is stunning, and the candor of the participants would be enough to make most senior managers cringe.

Minor squabbles. All in all, this book is not only the most important book about advertising written in a long time -- it's also a genuninely entertaining read.

Footnote: Once you understand the mindset of Subaru management during the failed campaign, the shift to Subaru's current Paul Hogan/Crocodile Dundee campaign becomes even more remarkable. Sells cars too....

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool story about two tough businesses -- advertising & cars, June 1, 2003

By 

Marc Cenedella "www.cenedella.com/stone" (East Village, New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign (Paperback)

This is a detailed, on-the-ground tactical exploration of the Subaru ad campaigns of the mid-90s. Watch the idealist dreamer's of the agency's creative team collide with the cold, hard world of auto retailing.

To me, an entertaining business book is something that teaches you about a particular profession, industry, comapny or leader, and develops the story through a plot, inherent tension in the conflicts in the business, and a "what would you do in their shoes?" sensibility. Where the Suckers Moon has both, and is one of my top 15 business books as a result.