ChasNote

Vance Packard’s 1957 classic critique of advertising, “The Hidden Persuaders,” is being republished with an introduction by Mark Crispin Miller — just time for election season. From the NY Times Book Review:

“What’s surprising is the degree to which we’ve all become sophisticates, engaging in our own Packard-like critiques of consumer culture without changing our habits. We know we buy irrationally; we just don’t care. We imagine that the ‘manipulators’ at J. Walter Thompson or BBDO play only on the fears and hopes of desperate consumers who aren’t as ‘conscious’ as we are (in which case it’s hard not to admire the ingenuity of the advertisers), while we ourselves are smart enough to decide when to give in. On the last page of ‘The Hidden Persuaders,’ Packard had to acknowledge the paradox: ‘When irrational acts are committed knowingly they become a sort of delicious luxury.’ We seem to enjoy both knowing that ads are hustling us and choosing to be hustled.”