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

Randall Rothenberg (Author)

Book Description

Release 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: 5.4 x 1.1 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: #551,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

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

By Avi Greengart

Format: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

10 of 11 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

Format: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....

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Where The Suckers Moon" Is At The Front of The Class December 7, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

"The Nerd from the Back of the Class"'s criticisms of Rothenberg's excellent, meticulously researched "client's eye-view" book seem to be focused on three areas: Subaru isn't "sexy" enough, the book is four years old, and that Rothenberg's cool refuses to crack in order to glamorize the ad game or its participants. In fact, one can infer from "Nerd At the Back of the Class"'s review that Rothenberg's writerly sang-froid is a deterrent from a reader's enjoyment or even basic understanding of the book.

A question: What word in the English language didn't you understand, Nerd? This is as fine a primer on the processes and pressures relating to advertising as I have ever read. And I'm not a Joe Blow--and I doubt that "Nerd At the Back Of The Class" is either-- but, in fact, have made my living as an advertising copywriter for five years now. Rothenberg's cool detachment, his knowledge of his subject (ostensibly modern advertising agencies but, in fact, the history of advertising agencies themselves, and, in fact, Subaru and its parent company in Japan) his patience, his eye for detail, his recording of the filming of the Subaru commercials and the organized chaos that is The Creative Process, his willingness to hang around legendary hothead Joe Pytka for crying out loud--these things make the book what it is: a treatise that modern consumer culture and in fact modern corporate America are neither godlike, infallible or perfect. Rothenberg is Toto, pulling away the curtain to reveal the Wizard for who he is--a little fat guy with a lot of smoke and mirrors at his disposal, a man who loves power and flattery. (Think of the original owners of Subaru and their covered motorcycles, or the divisonal Subaru car salesman or Wieden & Kennedy for heaven's sake.)

And by the way, if anyone doubts Rothenberg's street creds please see his weekly column in Advertising Age, one of the industry's leading publications.

If "Where the Suckers Moon" strikes anyone as being recondite, then perhaps you need to eschew this book for something a little less thorough. Perhaps an ad for Apple with its sexy lines and pretty colors...pretty colors good...and sleight of hand. Me, I prefer to know that I'm not being suckered. And that Rothenberg isn't suckered either.

And as for the complaint that this book is four years old and out of touch...As someone in the book says, advertising is all about people and relationships and they don't change. This book is as much about the people as it is about their business.

If you're looking for sexy, they have plenty of Web sites for that sort of thing...sorry. Rothenberg can't help the fact that Subaru, try as they might, ain't sexy nor will they ever be. And frankly I'm glad he doesn't see the manufacturing nor selling of a car as sexy or feel that he ought to dress it up for the bored people at the back of the class. But, however, the auto industry is quite important to the U.S. economy, and so is the ad business. However, if you're looking for history, knowledge and detail--things that seem to be lacking in most advertising agencies--then this book has it in abundance.