NUMBER: 10TITLE: Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising
AUTHOR: Juliann Sivulka
STARTED: January 21, 2006
FINISHED: January 26, 2006
PAGES: 448
GENRE: Media Studies
FIRST SENTENCE: From the moment our clock radio awakens us in the morning, we are inundated with as many as three thousan commercial messages a day.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] From the first newspaper ad in colonial times to Web sites for advertisers, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes explores advertising's integral role in both reflecting and shaping American life and how advertising has become a part of our personal habits with roots in popular culture as well as in the popular mind. Sivulka, both an advertising educator and a practicing professional, emphasizes advertising's greatest contribution - how it provides a way for society to learn about an endless stream of new products and in the process, how it shapes what we think, feel, and want.
REASON FOR READING: Assigned in MDIA 524: The Rhetoric of Advertising
THOUGHTS: This was your typical college textbook. The writing was straightforward and easy to follow. The most interesting part of this book was seeing how intertwined advertising and culture are.
MISCELLANEOUS: Not nearly as exciting as America: The Book.
KEEP/SHARE/CRINGE(?): Selling back at the end of the semester.
RATING: 6/10 [Good]
CR: Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
RN: Prince Charming by Gaelen Foley
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