Your call is important to us
Subtitle: the truth about bullshit
By: Laura Penny
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
ISBN-13: 9781400081035
Subjects: Relations publiques; Deception; Public relations; Manipulative behavior; Publicité; Advertising; Tromperie; Propagande; Manipulation (Psychologie); Propaganda
Description: This book is a manifesto for anyone who's sick and tired of the twenty-first century's tidal wave of crapulence. Dating the renaissance of bullshit to wartime propaganda, Penny skewers the "corporate bafflegab," scripted, question-proof political events, toxic faux foodstuffs, and miracle pills that clutter our lives. She spares no one and nothing: not Wal-Mart, not Bush's White House, and not the vast pharmaceutical industry. Penny reveals that prisons are the hot new thing in call centers (the federal prison industry bills itself as "the best-kept secret in outsourcing") and that the Public Relations Society of America has a Code of Ethics Pledge. Finally, she demonstrates how our "all-you-can-eat buffet of phoniness" not only alienates us from each other but degrades public discourse, breeds apathy, and makes us just plain stupid.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [224]-236) and index.
Table of contents: title: You're soaking in it; title: Painting the lawn green: public relations and advertising; title: If you've got the money, honey: a fond look at the boom and subsequent bust; title: World Co., Inc.: artificial people power; title: Don't worry about the government: or we don't need no stinkin' rules; title: Pillzapoppin'! The rise of big pharma; title: The best policy: in which your humble correspondent confesses to being totally baffled by the insurance industry; title: Malls, sprawls, and telephone calls: why the signs are the same and the service tends to suck; title: Sleaze bites and fluff crawls: or can we dumb this down for the kids?; title: Thikn of the children! Or life during wartime.