All illusions are potential ways of ordering reality. The goal of criticism should therefore be not to destroy illusions but to make us more sensitive to their workings and their complexity.
Bio/Short Description
Vance Packard was an American journalist who wrote an influential book, The Hidden Persuaders in 1957. The book offered a popularized but serious look at America's postwar prosperity and the explosion of consumerism. The book exposed the growing and potentially harmful influence of the nation's advertising industry. He wrote, "Many of us are being influenced and manipulated, far more than we realize, in the patterns of our everyday lives." He was among the first to describe subliminal advertising, a concept which captured the public's imagination even though advertisers disputed their use of these techniques.
HOW THEY INFLUENCED YOU?
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Clyde Posted By: Renee HobbsOn:04/04/2023 - 18:16
danahPosted By: Yonty FriesemOn:01/06/2023 - 07:34
SoniaPosted By: Renee HobbsOn:11/21/2020 - 21:12
Jon Posted By: Renee HobbsOn:05/10/2020 - 00:12
Barry Posted By: Renee HobbsOn:01/04/2020 - 04:25
Renee Hobbs
I was in high school when I read this book. Although some of the examples seemed quite remote, the ideas of the book resonated with the growing negative attitudes towards consumer culture which were part of my generation's heritage. I remember devouring all of his best-selling books, including The Status Seekers and The Waste-Makers. But it was The Hidden Persuaders that changed the way I watched television and looked at magazine advertising.