The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators

by Stephen Fox (Author)

6 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0252066597

ISBN-10: 0252066596

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Stephen Fox explores the consistently cyclical nature of advertising from its beginning. A substantial new introduction updates this lively, anecdotal history of advertising into the mid-1990s.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Arguably the best general history of advertising." -- New York Times Review of Books. "A fascinating account." -- Andrew Hacker, New York Times Book Review (front-page review)

About the Author

Stephen Fox, a freelance writer, is the author of Big Leagues: Professional Baseball, Football, and Basketball in National Memory, Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America, and other books. Fox lives in Somerville, Mass.

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: University of Illinois Press (July 1, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0252066596
ISBN-13: 978-0252066597
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 6 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #935,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1716 in Books > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales > Advertising
- #6835 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > United States
- #20464 in Books > Textbooks > Business & Finance

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Paul Magnussen

Advertising through the decades

October 6, 2014

When the TV shows you a handsome, athletic, well-dressed man holding* a beer and being clutched by adoring women, do you think "If I drank that beer, I could be clutched by adoring women, too"?

Not me: I more often think "I wouldn't drink that cat-pee if you paid me".

But apparently a lot of people (males, anyway) do think this way, because the approach sells product. And the person who originated it seems to have been Helen Resor, who used it (with the sexes reversed) to sell Woodbury's Facial Soap in the 1920s.

The Odyssey of advertising from it's "Reason Why" début in the 19th century to the date of this book's publication (1984), via such stops as Freudian tunnellings into the consumer's (alleged) subconscious and panics over (putative) brain-washing, makes a fascinating tale; and Mr Fox is the ideal man to tell it, since a) he seems to know the topic backwards and forwards, and b) he really is a terrific writer.

Indeed, the first paragraph got me hooked:

"Practically everyone dislikes it. Advertising interrupts radio and television programs, crowds editorial matter off the pages of newspapers and magazines, disfigures city streets, defaces the countryside, and even lurks at eye level for tired, vulnerable standees on the subway. Nobody believes it, or at least admits to believing it. It usually appeals to the less agreeable aspects of human nature: greed, vanity, insecurity, competitiveness, materialism. At cocktail parties, people in the advertising business wince when asked what they do for a living.

But there it is, one of the dominant forces in twentieth-century America [...]"

So if you have slightest interest in the subject-matter, whether you're in the industry or out of it, I thoroughly recommend this book.

It's been said that anything can be made interesting by a good writer who really knows his subject; and here's a case in point.

*But apparently never — on American TV, anyway — drinking.

CONTENTS

1. Advertising Prehistory: The Nineteenth Century
2. The Age of Lasker
3. High Tide and Green Grass: The Twenties
4. Depression and Reform
5. The Second Boom
6. The Creative Revolution
7. Real Reform: New Images in the Mirror
8. The 1970s: The Cycle Never Stops
Glossary, acknowledgments, references, notes & index

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A customer

A crash course about the dynamic history of advertising!

August 10, 1999

This book is a must-have resource for anybody in or thinking of dabbling in advertising. It's a veritable who's who of the movers and shakers in the industry.
Starting at advertising's humble beginnings, it covers most of the major successes and pitfalls, and sheds some light on how it modernized into the institution we love and hate today.
Nobody affiliated with the industry should be without this wonderful resource!

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The Agency Review

Absolutely indispensable

May 29, 2012

Let's not beat around the bush: This is a great, great book. It should be required reading by anyone in the advertising industry, by anyone who works with anyone in the advertising industry, and by anyone who has ever or might ever actually see an advertisement of any kind. The fact that that this "updated" version is over a decade and a half old as of this review (late 2011) should not dissuade you. For a comprehensive, insightful and well-written history of how people have tried to convince other people to buy things, nothing I have read beats it.

Now, if this were only a timeline of facts and figures about the men (and occasionally women) who created the advertising of America, it would be valuable. It offers introductions to the all but forgotten greats gone by - like Lasker, Powers, Hopkins, Resor - as well as the titans familiar to anyone who has watched Mad Men - such as Ogilvy, Bernbach, and Burnett. Fox explains what [to read the rest of this review, please visit: [...]]

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Great book. Had to read for a class

February 20, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great book. Had to read for a class, but glad to learn about this topic. Very fascinating and well written.

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Robert Fleege

Advertising must read

August 1, 2004

Anybody who ever worked, or ever want to work a day in the advertising business must read this book. Media, account and creative people will enjoy it equally. You will gain tremendous insight and respect for our industry -- understanding where we've come from -- and appreciation of where we are today. Extremely entertaining. Full of wisdom and fascinating stories about the advertising forefathers and legends. Rightfully the most quoted book on advertising. Robert Fleege - fleege.com

4 people found this helpful

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August 16, 2006

Great book on the early days of Advertising and how things have changed over time. This is must reading for anyone going into the Advertising or Marketing for that matter

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