Book description
Yet there have been very few true geniuses at the art of mass persuasion in the last century. In public relations, Edward Bernays comes to mind. In advertising, most Hall-of-Famers--J. Walter Thomson, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach, Bruce Barton, Ray Rubicam, and others--point to one individual as the "father" of modern advertising: Albert D. Lasker.
And yet Lasker--unlike Bernays, Thomson, Ogilvy, and the others--remains an enigma. Now, Jeffrey Cruikshank and Arthur Schultz, having uncovered a treasure trove of Lasker's papers, have written a fascinating and revealing biography of one of the 20th century's most powerful, intriguing, and instructive figures. It is no exaggeration to say that Lasker created modern advertising. He was the first influential proponent of "reason why" advertising, a consumer-centered approach that skillfully melded form and content and a precursor to the "unique selling proposition" approach that today dominates the industry. More than that, he was a prominent political figure, champion of civil rights, man of extreme wealth and hobnobber with kings and maharajahs, as well as with the likes of Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt. He was also a deeply troubled man, who suffered mental collapses throughout his adult life, though was able fight through and continue his amazing creative and productive activities into later life.
This is the story of a man who shaped an industry, and in many ways, shaped a century.
Table of contents
- Cover
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Chapter One: The Orator and the Entrepreneur
- Chapter Two: The Galveston Hothouse
- Chapter Three: Success in Chicago
- Chapter Four: Salesmanship in Print
- Chapter Five: Growing Up, Breaking Down
- Chapter Six: The Greatest Copywriter
- Chapter Seven: Orange Juice and Raisin Bread
- Chapter Eight: Fighting for Leo Frank
- Chapter Nine: Into the Tomato Business
- Chapter Ten: Saving Baseball from Itself
- Chapter Eleven: Venturing into Politics
- Chapter Twelve: Electing a President
- Chapter Thirteen: The Damnedest Job in the World
- Chapter Fourteen: A Family Interlude
- Chapter Fifteen: A Defeat and Two Victories
- Chapter Sixteen: Selling the Unmentionable, and More
- Chapter Seventeen: Retrenching and Reshaping
- Chapter Eighteen: Selling and Unselling California
- Chapter Nineteen: The Downward Spiral
- Chapter Twenty: Changing a Life
- Chapter Twenty-One: Finding Peace
- Chapter Twenty-Two: The Lasker Legacy
- A Note on Sources
- Notes
- Acknowledgments
- About the Authors
Product information
- Title: The Man Who Sold America
- Author(s):
- Release date: August 2010
- Publisher(s): Harvard Business Review Press
- ISBN: 9781422161777
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