The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip ConsumerismUniversity of Chicago Press, 1998 M10 21 - 322 pages While the youth counterculture remains the most evocative and best-remembered symbol of the cultural ferment of the 1960s, the revolution that shook American business during those boom years has gone largely unremarked. In this fascinating and revealing study, Thomas Frank shows how the youthful revolutionaries were joined—and even anticipated —by such unlikely allies as the advertising industry and the men's clothing business. "[Thomas Frank is] perhaps the most provocative young cultural critic of the moment."—Gerald Marzorati, New York Times Book Review "An indispensable survival guide for any modern consumer."—Publishers Weekly, starred review "Frank makes an ironclad case not only that the advertising industry cunningly turned the countercultural rhetoric of revolution into a rallying cry to buy more stuff, but that the process itself actually predated any actual counterculture to exploit."—Geoff Pevere, Toronto Globe and Mail "The Conquest of Cool helps us understand why, throughout the last third of the twentieth century, Americans have increasingly confused gentility with conformity, irony with protest, and an extended middle finger with a populist manifesto. . . . His voice is an exciting addition to the soporific public discourse of the late twentieth century."—T. J. Jackson Lears, In These Times "An invaluable argument for anyone who has ever scoffed at hand-me-down counterculture from the '60s. A spirited and exhaustive analysis of the era's advertising."—Brad Wieners, Wired Magazine "Tom Frank is . . . not only old-fashioned, he's anti-fashion, with a place in his heart for that ultimate social faux pas, leftist politics."—Roger Trilling, Details |
Contents
High Modernism on Madison Avenue | 34 |
Bill Bernbach versus the Mass Society | 52 |
Advertising Narratives of the Sixties | 74 |
Photos following page 86 | 87 |
Creativity Conquers All | 88 |
Youth Culture and Creativity | 104 |
Advertisements of the 1960s | 132 |
Hip versus Square in the Cola Wars | 168 |
Common terms and phrases
adman admen adver Advertising Age advertising industry agency Alka-Seltzer American appeared art director BBDO Bill Bernbach brand campaign Chicago cigarettes clients co-optation Coca-Cola cola Cola Wars colors conformity consumer culture consumerism conventional copy copywriter corporate counterculture Creative Revolution Daily News Record DDB's decade Dodge Doyle Dane Bernbach establishment fashion February Femina fifties George Lois Gossage headline hip consumerism hippies ideas industry's jacket Jerry Della Femina liberation Live/Give look Madison Avenue magazine mass society Men's Wear menswear industry ment MT&R NMAH nonconformity obsolescence Ogilvy Oldsmobile Organization Peacock Revolution Pepsi Pontiac psychedelic readers rebel rebellion retailers rock Rosser Reeves rules seems sell sixties slogan social strategy style suit symbol tastes television commercials theme theory thing tion traditional Uncola values vertising Volkswagen Volvo Walter Thompson Whiskey writes wrote York youth culture youth market