Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture: Advertising's Impact on American Character and Society

Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture is an engaging cultural studies critique of advertising and its impacts on American society. Arthur Asa Berger looks at marketing strategies, sex and advertising, consumer culture, political advertising, and communication theory and process to give an accessible overview of advertising in America. He explores how advertising works and how society does or doesn’t respond to it, and he gives two detailed interpretations of ads to offer readers step-by-step frameworks for decoding print ads and television commercials. In making our own purchasing decisions, do we still end up buying only well-advertised products? Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture shows that there is a fine line between being aware of advertising and being influenced by it. The book also includes a glossary of advertising and communication theory terms.