Abstract

What to drive

This article presents information on the book "Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America," by Jackson Lears and "Where the Suckers Moon: An Advertising Story," by Randall Rothenberg. "Fables of Abundance," is a bold, original, subtle and important book, For Lears, advertising is not a marginal aspect of human existence. More important, Lears believes, the most vivid and even sensuous images in our everyday symbolic universe derive from commerce. As Randall Rothenberg points out in "Where the Suckers Moon," there is so little product differentiation that creative personnel in the agencies are convinced that all truth is image and perception. Rothenberg might have pursued this issue in the book "Where the Suckers Moon," but he does not.