The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
In his book-length essayThe Conquest of Cool, Thomas Frank explores the ways in  which Madison Avenue co-opted the language of youthful '60s rebellion. It is "the story,"  Frank writes, "of the bohemian cultural style's trajectory from adversarial to hegemonic; the story of  hip's mutation from native language of the alienated to that of advertising." This appropriation had  wide-ranging consequences that deeply transformed our culture--consequences that linger in the form of  '90s "hip consumerism." (Think of Nike using the song "Revolution" to sell  sneakers, or Coca-Cola using replicas of Ken Kesey's bus to peddle Fruitopia.)This is no simplistic analysis of how the counterculture "sold out" to big business. Instead,  Frank shows how the counterculture and business culture influenced one another. In fact, he writes, the  counterculture's critique of mass society mimicked earlier developments in business itself, when a new  generation of executives attacked the stultified, hierarchical nature of corporate life. Counterculture and  business culture evolved together over time--until the present day, when they have become essentially the  same thing. According to Frank, the '60s live on in the near-archetypal dichotomy of "hip" and  "square," now part of advertising vernacular, signifying a choice between consumer styles.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.