I persuasori occulti

This slim volume, already more than half a century old, remains readable and relevant today, despite largely preaching to the converted about a war that's already been lost. Its thesis is simple: sometime before the midpoint of the 20th Century, American advertisers began appropriating techniques fro Leggi tutto

Published first in 1957, "The Hidden Persuaders" was not merely the work of a topnotch journalist, or even a social critic. Vance Packard was one of America's innovators for consumerism. Reading this book in high school, I lost a kind of innocence about the benevolence of what was being sold to me; s Leggi tutto

The Hidden Persuaders was first published in 1957 and is one of the first popular books to describe the psychological techniques advertisers and marketers use to sell their wares. While these techniques have only become more sophisticated in the half century since the book was written, the themes ar Leggi tutto

An important book in the history of advertising. Dated, yes, but not really if you start digging into what's going on now with "MR" as it was called then. The book was a massive public hit, and changed america's view of advertising forever. It was influential in bringing some laws and regulations to Leggi tutto

Intriguing read, because at the time, consumer manipulation was only just beginning. There is a glimpse into a world before mass persuasion was the norm. I slightly wonder at the conclusion though... just letting people know that they're being manipulated was not going to arm them against the onslau Leggi tutto

Years before Naomi Klein wrote her No Logo , Vance Packard wrote of the way in which marketers were employing the findings of psychology in order to market more aggressively to consumers. For most contemporary readers, this is probably an instance of a conspiracy theory that is no longer a theory nor Leggi tutto

"I persuasori occulti" di Vance Packard, saggio sui nuovi metodi di comunicazione pubblicitaria edito per la prima volta nei lontani anni cinquanta, malgrado l'evidente obsolescenza mediatica conserva un grande interesse per la capire la grande capacità di manipolazione psicologica dei mass media e Leggi tutto

For anyone born in the mid-twentieth century, The Hidden Persuaders is an intriguing look at the beginnings of advertising and marketing as it influenced our wants and needs, our purchasing decisions, our political views and even (possibly a stretch) led to our current economic situation. I read it

The Hidden Persuaders is not a new book but it is definitely a classic. I do not know if the book has been updated to include changes in recent decades (e.g. e-commerce and digital advertising), its basic premise of how consumers are manipulated, the various methods companies use to get their messag Leggi tutto