Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know
Grade 5-8-This skillfully age-tailored overview of the advertising industry has an appealing cover design, a fast-paced and friendly text, cartoon illustrations, and a generous smattering of juicy, relevant sidebars and quotes. Though the book is decidedly unscholarly in look and feel, it is thorough in coverage and thought-provoking. Using examples readers will find familiar, it deconstructs ad campaigns without undue condemnation or bias, exposing their sometimes less-than-salient subtexts and neatly outlining the common techniques advertisers use to manipulate consumer appetites. It then provides a quick list of questions young consumers can use to help ensure that their purchasing decisions are tempered by a healthy degree of critical thinking. The book concludes with a simple but eloquent overview of how advertising impacts both the quality of life and overall worldview of North Americans. It suggests some responsible alternative strategies budding young capitalists might someday apply to marketing their company's products and services, and lists resources for both consumer complaints and anti-consumer activism. Useful for reports, but also an alluringly hip selection, this title will be a particularly effective "heads-up" for kids immersed in-and, therefore, often oblivious to-consumer culture.Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.