Advertising Today

For Advertising undergrads, Creative types, marcoms executives.

What’s it about First published in 2001, Warren Berger’s compendium of some of the best advertising to ever grace film, pixel or paper.

It’s a hefty tome that features examinations of seminal campaigns, meditations on trends in advertising throughout the post-WW2 period, plus interviews with significant figures in the field – whether on the periphery, like sitcom tycoon Jerry Seinfeld, whose inclusion is justified by his starring in ads for Amex, or those at the centre of the action, such as legendary creative director and pioneer of ‘oddvertising’, John Hegarty, or ‘Got Milk?’ creator, Jeff Goodby.

What we think Testament to Warhol’s credo that commerce is the new art, the creative that Berger showcases is at turns clever, provocative, emotive, imaginative, witty, and an evocative barometer of changes in social mores and the collective conscious – everything good art should be. Call admen bullshit artists if you will, but looking at the work collected in Advertising Today, you can’t help but conclude that sometimes, just sometimes, the artistry outweighs the BS.