The Ad Men and Women: A Biographical Dictionary of Advertising (Hardcover)

Customers buy this book with The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators by Stephen Fox

+ Price For Both: $154.95

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath  (232)  $16.50

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From Booklist
Fifty-four men and women who played major roles in American advertising from the nineteenth century to the present are profiled in this useful and entertaining work. The signed articles discuss at length each subject's career and contributions to the field. Similar in length to entries in Current Biography, each concludes with a bibliography of works by and about the subject and a list of his or her notable campaigns and/or clients. The editor, who teaches college-level journalism, conceived this work after searching for a good reference on the topic and not finding one. Applegate states that "if readers were familiar with the lives of creative personalities they would be in a position to understand more fully how (and why) creativity occurs."

Among other accomplishments, the individuals profiled here created many famous campaigns and built large and successful agencies, as their last names are sufficient to remind us: Batten, Barton, Durstine, Osborn, Benton, Bowles, Foote, Belding, Ogilvy, McCann, Thompson, Burnett, Della Femina, etc. Nine women are the subjects of articles. Through reading each individual's story, one also gets a picture of the overall history of advertising. Since advertising affects all our lives, the appeal of this book is wide. The book concludes with a bibliography, an index, and a list of the 32 contributors with their affiliations.

The Ad Men and Women will be a good addition to all but the smallest business collections.

Review
“This unique reference dictionary will be of obvious utility in business libraries, but should also be useful in institutions teaching journalism/advertising, popular culture, or American social history.”–Choice

“The brief biographies give a sense of the ingenuity, energy, and audacity that characterized these shapers of consumer America, these authors of the language of our lives.”–Studies in Popular Culture

“The book offers over 400 choice pages of the story of creative advertising in America.”–Communication Arts

“What you get from the profiles included here is a nice mixture of advertising men and women who work hard-or easy-with imagination-or without it. But we see the way that world works, and that is sufficiently evidenced in this book.... Needed on all library shelves.”–Journal of Popular Culture