"One of the best books around for demystifying the deliberately
mysterious arts of advertising."--Salon
"Fascinating, entertaining and thought-stimulating."--The New York
Times Book Review
"A brisk, authoritative and frightening report on how manufacturers,
fundraisers and politicians are attempting to turn the American mind
into a kind of catatonic dough that will buy, give or vote at their
command--The New Yorker
Originally published in 1957 and now back in print to celebrate its
fiftieth anniversary, The Hidden Persuaders is Vance Packard's
pioneering and prescient work revealing how advertisers use
psychological methods to tap into our unconscious desires in order to
"persuade" us to buy the products they are selling.
A classic examination of how our thoughts and feelings are manipulated
by business, media and politicians, The Hidden Persuaders was the
first book to expose the hidden world of "motivation research," the
psychological technique that advertisers use to probe our minds in order
to control our actions as consumers. Through analysis of products,
political campaigns and television programs of the 1950s, Packard shows
how the insidious manipulation practices that have come to dominate
today's corporate-driven world began. Featuring an introduction by Mark
Crispin Miller, The Hidden Persuaders has sold over one million
copies, and forever changed the way we look at the world of advertising.
Vance Packard (1914-1996) was an American journalist, social critic,
and best-selling author. Among his other books were The Status
Seekers, which described American social stratification and behavior,
The Waste Makers, which criticizes planned obsolescence, and The
Naked Society, about the threats to privacy posed by new technologies.
