by Howie Cohen ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
An entertaining account of a career in the highest echelons of American advertising.
Cohen tells stories about writing award-winning advertisements in this debut memoir of his years on Madison Avenue and beyond.
The author, who grew up in the Bronx and Brooklyn boroughs of New York City, entered the Manhattan-based advertising business in the mid-1960s, just when things were getting interesting: “Young twenty-something Jewish copywriters and Italian art directors were suddenly in high demand,” he writes. “These ‘street kids’ instinctively knew how to go beyond the consumers’ heads to touch their hearts.” He got a job with the iconoclastic firm Wells, Rich, Greene, captained by Mary Wells Lawrence, a pioneering female advertising executive who would come up with the famous “I Love New York” campaign. Cohen quickly established himself as a talented writer of TV ads, which was becoming an increasingly lucrative medium. In 1969, he began working with art director Bob Pasqualina, with whom he created two Clio Award–winning ads for Alka-Seltzer, using two slogans that entered the popular consciousness: “Try it, you’ll like it” and “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” The two admen would go on to form their own company, but after five years, it folded, and they returned to Wells and relocated to Los Angeles. He goes on to chronicle a career that spanned five decades overall, and hundreds of campaigns. Throughout this memoir, Cohen writes in the way that you’d hope a seasoned adman would—in a punchy, funny, and consistently surprising style. For example, here, he discusses a plan for a commercial featuring the destruction of a fast-food chain’s mascot: “Let’s blame all of Jack in the Box’s problems on the dopey clown. All that mediocre food—that was his fault, not Jack in the Box’s. And if we got rid of the clown, it would be proof that we had changed.” He also reveals how he was repeatedly forced to change with the times to anticipate consumers’ shifting tastes. Fans of the TV show Mad Men will particularly enjoy Cohen’s colorful stories, which follow the history of the ad industry all the way into the 2000s.
An entertaining account of a career in the highest echelons of American advertising.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-692-08122-8
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Red Rascal Press
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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