The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip ConsumerismUniversity of Chicago Press, 1997 - 287 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 | 34 |
Bill | 52 |
Advertising Narratives | 74 |
five How Do We Break These | 88 |
Youth Culture | 104 |
Advertisements | 132 |
Other editions - View all
The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip ... Thomas Frank No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
admaking adman admen adver Advertising Age advertising industry agency Alka-Seltzer American appeared art director BBDO Bill Bernbach brand called campaign cigarettes clients co-optation Coca-Cola cola colors conformity consumer culture consumerism conventional copy copywriter corporate counterculture Creative Revolution DDB's decade Dodge Doyle Dane Bernbach establishment fashion 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 clothing Men's Wear menswear industry ment nonconformity obsolescence Ogilvy Oldsmobile Organization Peacock Revolution Pepsi psychedelic readers rebel rebellion retailers rock Rosser Reeves rules sartorial seems sell sixties slogan social strategy style suit symbol tastes television commercials theory thing tion traditional Uncola values Vance Packard vertising Volkswagen Volvo Walter Thompson Whiskey writing wrote York Young & Rubicam youth culture youth market
References to this book
Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace William Leiss,Jackie Botterill No preview available - 2005 |
Arrested Adulthood: The Changing Nature of Maturity and Identity James E. Cote No preview available - 2000 |