Customer Reviews

Where The Suckers Moon: An Advertising Story

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This slyly amusing, very informative book is as lively and relevant now as it was sixteen years ago. Perhaps more so. Advertisers are now partially responsible for the continuing existence of their clients and there are fewer models to impress upon a (hopefully) gullible public. In some senses it's the morganatic brother to Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine" in that both are careful, thoughtful dissections of a process the public never sees. Both have more than just a quick glance and have lengthy, thoughtful passages where the process is carefully examined and explained. It takes the "sex" out of what is sometimes seen as a sexy approach to advertising cars but shows how sex is manipulated to be at once titillating and yet keeps it suspended, beyond the point where it would offend "the little woman". (But it does point out how far we've come in gender relations and politics. Now women make more than 50% of the decisions when making a vehicle purchase. No longer do slinky models replace hood ornaments.) At the end one will feel armed to go buy a car and also a bit foolish remembering how they were conned to buy the last one.

Although the book is somewhat long (as another reviewer commented) it is certainly worth reading, and delivers some great insights into the ad business for young writers and designers.