Book Description
Written by Joel Gerson, the industryÆs leading authority on skin care, MiladyÆs Standard Textbook for Professional Estheticians brings instructors and students, all the latest industry education required to successfully prepare students for state licensing exams and professional careers in the diversified areas of skin care, including the cosmetic industry. Students will acquire a thorough understanding of both the theory and practice of all pertinent subjects dealing with skin care and the application of cosmetics.
Customer Reviews:
Compared to Milady's newest edition ..........2007-01-12
this book is MUCH better. The new edition deleted a LOT of the info from this edition ... guess what? The state board test still asks questions from this book! The new book has color pictures and notes in the margin. BIG DEAL! This edition of this book has helped me pass most of my tests in class. Without it, I would have done much worse. I keep it as reference. Milady, what were you THINKING when you brought out the new edition???? Put the info back into the new edition!!!!
Inaccurate and missleading.......2003-05-03
Working through this book on a skin care course was very frustrating. The medical terms used were inaccurate and often contradictory.
Althought the basic skin care isues were dealt with efficiently the anatomy and physiology references were not consistent with current medical text books.
This publisher has many better books. Avoid this one.
Great text!.......2003-01-08
This book is very thorough, up-to-date, and informative. I found it easy to read and follow, and the contents pages are very well-labeled, making it easy to find the desired information quickly. I would highly recommend this text to anyone looking to learn new skills or brush up on old skills.
So you want to learn about skin care, eh?.......2002-06-18
I also used this book as a text in Aesthetics School - and at the time, I didn't appreciate it as much as now - when I'm working in the field. I find myself going back and reviewing what I may have missed the first time.
This book has got it all!
- How to Portray a Professional Image (you'd be amazed how many don't know this! yikes...=0) )
- A History of Skin Care and Cosmetics
- Bacteriology
- Sterilization & Disinfection for salon safety
- Anatomy & Physiology
- Disorders of the Skin & Special Procedures
- Ingredient & Product Analysis
- Nutrition & Health of the Skin
- Client Consultation & Skin Analysis
- Massage Techniques
- and more....
I have the '99 version and found that it has helpful and effective to answer most questions that I may have had.
Sure, there are a few errors that can easily be modified - but they are not worth missing this book over!
Very Comprehensive and easy to tackle. I recommend!
update the book.......2002-01-24
This textbook is practically the only standard textbook that can be utilized by students preparing to become estheticians. However, the book needs to be brought up to current standards. Do not just print a new edition without updating the information, this stifles the profession!
Book Description
Why are people around the world so very different? What makes us live, buy, even love as we do? The answers are in the codes.
In The Culture Code, internationally revered cultural anthropologist and marketing expert Clotaire Rapaille reveals for the first time the techniques he has used to improve profitability and practices for dozens of Fortune 100 companies. His groundbreaking revelations shed light not just on business but on the way every human being acts and lives around the world.
Rapaille’s breakthrough notion is that we acquire a silent system of Codes as we grow up within our culture. These Codes—the Culture Code—are what make us American, or German, or French, and they invisibly shape how we behave in our personal lives, even when we are completely unaware of our motives. What’s more, we can learn to crack the Codes that guide our actions and achieve new understanding of why we do the things we do.
Rapaille has used the Culture Code to help Chrysler build the PT Cruiser—the most successful American car launch in recent memory. He has used it to help Procter & Gamble design its advertising campaign for Folger’s coffee – one of the longest-lasting and most successful campaigns in the annals of advertising. He has used it to help companies as diverse as GE, AT&T, Boeing, Honda, Kellogg, and L’Oréal improve their bottom line at home and overseas. And now, in The Culture Code, he uses it to reveal why Americans act distinctly like Americans, and what makes us different from the world around us.
In The Culture Code, Dr. Rapaille decodes two dozen of our most fundamental archetypes—ranging from sex to money to health to America itself—to give us “a new set of glasses” with which to view our actions and motivations. Why are we so often disillusioned by love? Why is fat a solution rather than a problem? Why do we reject the notion of perfection? Why is fast food in our lives to stay? The answers are in the Codes.
Understanding the Codes gives us unprecedented freedom over our lives. It lets us do business in dramatically new ways. And it finally explains why people around the world really are different, and reveals the hidden clues to understanding us all.
Customer Reviews:
First Impressions are Usually Lasting Impressions.......2007-10-12
The world molds us into beings that are far different from our inner selves. Perceptions, norms, stereotypes and the like cause us to consciously change. However, even when the child we were doesn't recognize the adults we've become, we're still that child at heart. Dr. R knows this. He has a method for stripping us of our worldly armor and displaying who we really are. He presents many scenarios where he has consulted with business to tap into the inner child so their products can relate to those subconscious core values. A great read for anyone in any line of work.
Good marketing and general information, opens mind........2007-09-22
The information and analysis offered by the author are very interesting, it changes the way questions and investigation are offered so that more interesting answers can be obtained.
Very Disappointing.......2007-09-20
Seeing the number of strong reviews, I bought this book expecting deep insight into how consumers across cultures differ in how they make buying decisions (as indicated by the subtitle). At the very least, I was hoping for a thought-provoking framework for thinking about this stuff.
Instead, I got surface-level assertions primarily targeted at the American psyche and seemingly supported only by casual observation and a few focus groups. Indeed, the lack of real scientific rigor and foundational theory supporting his words make it pretty easy to blow holes in every one of Rapaille's arguments (especially the ideas of the Reptilian Brain and America's Cultural Adolescence) and make the book frustrating to read. Like some other reviewers, I also nearly put it down after 100 pages.
On the other hand, the Codes that he's defined for Americans' views of things like food, quality, health, and money are reasonable enough. So to some foreign audiences and perhaps also to Americans and Marketers without previous exposure to cultural anthropology, I can understand how some of his ideas may seem profound.
If you don't fit into either of those categories, don't bother buying this book.
Great Information.......2007-08-15
I really enjoyed reading his book; it let me understand even some of my aptitudes with life.
Very inspiring book.......2007-08-14
This book really helps to understand the most important culture codes for USA. It is very interesting for everybody, it is a must for each marketeers and communitations manager.
Book Description
Combining the impact of the classic bestseller Silent Spring with Fast Food Nation, The Hundred-Year Lie presents a devastating exposé of how chemicals in everyday products are ruining our health.
Over the past one hundred years, we have been guinea pigs in a vast chemistry experiment that uses our bodies, our health, and our good will to test the proposition that modern science can improve upon nature.
In The Hundred-Year Lie, investigative journalist RandallFitzgerald shatters dozens of myths being perpetuated by the chemical, pharmaceutical and processed food industries.
Find out why you would never be FDA-approved—and why humans are becoming one of the most polluted species on the planet:
• The average American now carries a “body burden” of 700 or more synthetic chemicals, including Teflon, plastics, and dozens of pesticides.
• Musk fragrances used in detergents and air fresheners are not filtered out by our current water treatment facilities, ending up in our drinking water.
• The artificial sweetener aspartame, an ingredient in 1,200 food products from diet drinks to chewing gum, has been linked to eighty-eight toxic symptoms.
Fitzgerald not only sheds light on the problems we face from the unprecedented chemical onslaught, he presents suggestions for what we can to do to turn the tide.
Customer Reviews:
Well researched truth that may save your 200+ toxin saturated life!.......2007-09-02
As an engineer that lives and dies through a working knowledge of cause and effect, I have impatiently read through many books crying of our toxic environment with only bits and pieces of truth and the rest filled in with passionate fluff. This book, however, is well researched, using primarily professional medical and federal study information to show us the increasingly hopeless degree of the problem, a beautiful timeline showing/inferring a whole host of cause and effect issues, as well as a better path to prepare us for healthier living. As a result of this book, I researched several detox programs, setting on DrNatura's Detox Diet. After just 30 days on the colon cleanse/detox I had my eyeglass restrictions lifted from my license (which I've had for 20+ yrs). A more amplified section on how to find out your toxicity as well as your vitamin and mineral balance would really make this an excellent book. Still, I gave it a 5, since it is the best of the 7 books I've read on the subject of profiteering homicide by the chemical and processed food giants of the west.
Your Health.......2007-08-26
If you want to know what our media and salesmen for food are feeding us and our loved ones, this is the place. Your health is your responsibility, this helps you know things you can do.
SCARED AND MAD AS HELL!.......2007-08-01
WOW, what an eye-opener! All these years I've been thinking the FDA was out to protect me, only to find they are really responding to pressure from big business and special interests. And the job I thought they were doing is NOT BEING DONE AT ALL! If you care about your health and would like to know where the health-threats are coming from, READ THIS, it will scare you to death! But it will also give you information to help you stay away from the worst risks.
TO THE AUTHOR......THANK YOU RANDALL FITZGERALD!
A sobering look at the dire consequences of the highly toxic world we have created in just the past century. .......2007-04-02
Just over a century ago, the Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. According to author Randall Fitzgerald it was this legislation that reassured the American public that the food and medicines they were consuming had been thoroughly tested and were safe to use. As it turns out nothing could be further from the truth! "The Hundred Year Lie" tells the sordid story of a century of deception and irresponsibility by the companies who process our food and manufacture the drugs and chemicals we use everyday. Indeed, the promise of "a better life through chemistry" is a notion we all need to examine and seriously reconsider.
At a bare minimum, reading "The One Hundred Year Lie" will make you stop in your tracks and think about all of the different chemicals you are ingesting and coming into contact with every day. It is not just the voluminous amounts of additives in your food that you must worry about. Stop and consider all of the personal care products you use on a daily basis. Add to that the over-the-counter and prescription drugs you may be taking and all of the household cleaning products that you employ. Then think about all of the chemicals that are applied to our clothing, our bedding and to our furniture. Next, you might want to consider the flouride in your municipal water supply and maybe the highly toxic arsenic in all of that pressure treated lumber around your property. Now if you are a pretty unscientific sort like me you will then appreciate Randall Fitzgerald's attempt to explain the concept of "synergy". Most people just take it for granted that the products they use must have been thoroughly tested and deemed completely safe to use. It is when you discover that the scientific community, the manufacturers themselves and various government regulators really have absolutely no idea how these different chemical concoctions are going react with each other in the real world that you just might become a bit concerned. On many different levels "The Hundred Year Lie" challenges the way we live our lives today and implores each of us as individuals and society in general to make the necessary changes before more damage is done. I simply cannot imagine that anyone who reads this book will not feel compelled to make some significant changes in his or her own lifestyle. In our never-ending quest for comfort and convenience we have done considerable damage to our our own personal well-being and to our environment. Some say the damage may be irreparable. This is a fascinating and well written book that is certainly worth your time and attention.
Highly recommended!
Essential reading for your health.......2007-03-24
This is a great book that details all the harmful substances you should be aware of in your daily life. The only thing could possibly be added is information on how to protect yourself from these dangers. But that would be another book entirely, and there are a few out there like The Recipe for Living Without Disease, by Dr. Vonderplanitz that serve that purpose.
Book Description
ince its launch nine years ago, In Style magazine has built a readership more than seven million strong. In doing so, it has become the pre-eminent publication for style-conscious women. The magazine's lively mix of fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and celebrity has created a legion of loyal readers who consider In Style their most trusted fashion advisor. Secrets of Style: In Style's Complete Guide to Dressing Your Best Every Day is the magazine's first book-dedicated to its signature subject, fashion. Secrets of Style offers a full range of timeless advice, including tips on dressing the best for you and your lifestyle, developing a personal style, and shopping strategies, beginning with the basics: -How to flatter your body type -How to find the right fit for every clothing item -How to look great seven days (and nights) a week -How to shop wisely for everything, from shoes to winter coats Scores of detailed, full-color illustrations and beautiful still photographs bring the book's ideas to life, while photos of chic celebrities demonstrate how the beautiful people get that way. From defining the perfect fit to examining successful style icons of the past, Secrets of Style is a complete and timely reference designed to help you discover your best look every day. Secrets of Style explains the best cuts and fabrics for every figure type. Wardrobe staples like pants, suits, and tops are discussed in specific detail, and advice is offered on how to get the most out of accessories. Tons of tips on time and money-saving shopping strategies, selecting clothes for special events, maternity wear, travel wardrobes and packing, clothing care, and much more make this title an enduring one-stop reference.
Customer Reviews:
Plenty of content.......2007-04-24
This is much better book than the second In Style book. There are detailed tips on how to look for the best fit and what shapes flatter which body style. I was hoping to see more pictures of actual clothes so that's the reason for four stars.
In Style;Secrets of Style; The Complete Guide to Dressing Your Best Every Day.......2007-04-02
I THOUGHT THE BOOK IS EXECELLENT AND IT IS WORTH THE PRICE.
Great Reference Book! .......2007-03-21
I have purchased other style books in the past, but this is one of the most useful because it breaks down body types and what looks best. My goal was the dress sexier and more feminine and this books has taught me what types of tops and bottoms to achieve that look. Now that I stick to the rules of thumb they provided, I am more comfortable with wearing whatever I pull out of my closet because I know it will fit great and be stylish.
Great book, everybody needs.......2007-01-12
This is the best book on clothing and style I've ever read. It's a must have! This book will save money for anyone following the advise given.
Not really a "style" book.......2006-09-30
This book is good for explaining which shapes of clothes look good on which figures, how clothes should fit, and how to tie a scarf. While that is helpful, I was expecting to learn some "secrets of style" as the title claims. Some tips on finding a style that corresponds with your personality or lifestyle, how to make it your own, shop for it, and keep it updated...that's what I thought I was buying. Too bad.
Book Description
America is no longer a country but a multimillion-dollar brand, says Kalle Lasn and his fellow "culture jammers". The founder of Adbusters magazine, Lasn aims to stop the branding of America by changing the way information flows; the way institutions wield power; the way television stations are run; and the way the food, fashion, automobile, sports, music, and culture industries set agendas. With a courageous and compelling voice, Lasn deconstructs the advertising culture and our fixation on icons and brand names. And he shows how to organize resistance against the power trust that manages the brands by "uncooling" consumer items, by "dermarketing" fashions and celebrities, and by breaking the "media trance" of our TV-addicted age.
A powerful manifesto by a leading media activist, Culture Jam lays the foundations for the most significant social movement of the early twenty-first century -- a movement that can change the world and the way we think and live.
Customer Reviews:
The newest culture movement?.......2007-07-13
He sets the stage for culture jammers to take on the newest set of problems being discovered in our culture, Corporate rule, causing people to be addicted to tv, shopping, eating, and consumption in general.
Wanting us to be what feminism was in the 70s, and what environmentalism was in the 80s.
he tries to show how the culture jammers can fight their meme fight using the media, yet starts to fight the wrong people a few times, yet quickly gets back on track.
Maybe culture jamming with be the movement of the 10's, but right now its a fight few are participating in.
Subversion at its best.......2007-07-11
This is an exceptional book. It is written by the founder of Adbusters. This is a book that challenged me to my core about my consumption habits. And in more specific the marketing that goes on to sell me things that I may or may not need. The book is sort of what you would imagine if an Old Testament prophet were to challenge the American Dream today. It's raw, honest, and thought provoking about how do we challenge and subvert the system without withdrawing from it. And what type of alternatives do we have besides living in a hole and pretending like nothing is happening. It's a bit of an older book (written in 2000) so some of the cultural references are obviously a bit out of date. But the content and ideas are really intriguing. The author shares a lot of stories about their battles and conversations with executives from all of the privately owned television stations and how they wouldn't take their money to run perfectly decent and normal ads. It shows how biased our entertainment industry is towards consumption and how embedded our entertainment is with commercialism. Just watch American Idol and you can see the gross product placement in that one show. This is the first book I bought all year (a fact to which I am proud since I bought close to 50 last year) because they didn't have it at any of my local libraries. So I bought it used on Amazon and gave it away to a friend, who will hopefully pass it on to someone else.
Interesting and different.......2005-10-25
This book is excellent for studying culture. The author is interesting and relates to the reader easily. The topics vary and bring many different ideas to the plate for anyone interested in culture. I would suggest that this would be interesting for a teenager to an adult to read. It will change your perception of culture.
Yes-No-Maybe-I don't know-Can you repeat the question?.......2005-10-20
I bought this book thinking it was going to briefly spell out what I already know--that our advertising-soaked world is toxic--and then get to the heart of the matter: what I personally could do to make my own life saner. It did not do that. It was mostly a diatribe against "the way the world is today" and how "things were better in the old days."
Well, hold the phone, because (a)Things aren't 100% hellish now and (b)The world is no worse than it ever was, it's just crummy in a different way. This is one great argument that IT IS IMPERATIVE TO KNOW YOUR HISTORY! So here goes:
Life up till the 1950s was not all one big back-to-nature love-in. Most people have been unable to build a fire without using matches since at least the Industrial Revolution. Nobody but an idiot would have drunk from a stream in the Middle Ages; the water was polluted (albeit with feces rather than mercury), and that's why they all guzzled ale instead. Life on the land basically meant you were one crop away from starvation and you worked yourself pretty much to death just to get by. And if you want to talk about long hours and fast paces, how about 7-year-olds toiling in textile factories and mines for 12 to 15 hours a day--less than a century ago?
Yes, we are inundated with advertising to a ridiculous degree. And yes, it breeds cynicism. And yes, the levels of noise and chatter have become deafening. These are Bad Things. But the book really doesn't give any positive steps for turning these things down in your own life...and I thought that was the point? I can bemoan the state of the world quite well on my own; what I want is some ideas other people have tried that worked. Like another reviewer, I'm hoping for a sequel that would deal with these things--plus not leave me so depressed I want to stick my head in the oven. Maybe it could be titled: *Okay, the Sky's Not Falling, Let's Lighten Up*?
It is the points being made that matter.......2005-07-16
This book is a little all over the place, but its basic premises and ideas are what matters. I won't go into any details - read the book for those. Just let me say if everyone read this book (with an open mind), then maybe we would all realize that huge corporations are having a very negative impact on the quality of all of our lives and it is time to do something about it. This book should be mandatory reading for all high school students. Read this book and try to get your friends to read it. It is time to wake up and take your life back.
Book Description
For over 60 years, Milady's Standard Textbook of Cosmetology has been the textbook of choice for cosmetology education. Used in 48 countries and developed in 5 languages, Milady's Standard is recognized as the undisputed industry leader and primary source of the most current and comprehensive cosmetology education available for cosmetology students. This newly revised edition continues to provide students with the knowledge and skills required to pass state licensing exams and provide professional cosmetology services. Drawing on the input and expertise of many industry leaders, educators, and artists, this revised textbook gives students a thorough understanding of both the theory and practice of all pertinent subjects. And for the very first time, the frontmatter of the textbook includes an overview/definition of the National Skills Standards for Entry Level Cosmetologists, developed by the Cosmetology Advancement Foundation (CAF). ALSO AVAILABLE ISBN: 1-56253-467-X (Softcover) Theory Workbook, 2000, ISBN: 1-56253-468-8 Practical Workbook, 2000, ISBN: 1-56253-469-6 State Exam Review, ISBN: 1-56253-472-6 INSTUCTOR SUPPLEMENTS CALL CUSTOMER SUPPORT TO ORDER Course Management Guide, 2000, ISBN: 1-56253-471-8
Customer Reviews:
Milady's Standard Cosmetology Book Rating.......2007-01-03
Good reference book for anyone going through cosmetology training. We purchased the book for my daughter to keep on hand at home since it's the same book used in her class at school. It's very informative and helpful and will be a reference tool once she gets out on her own and needs to refer back to it. I strongly recommend this book for anyone going into the field of cosmetology.
My complaints for local hairstylists.......2006-01-11
For what the book taught hairstylists about cuts for round, and squared faces are totally wrong. If thte hair has to be styled to lift off the forehead, and come forward: All the hairstylists would do is leave bangs to the side of the client's face. Round faces should not have hair on top of hteir head. That is to crop up a spiky hairdo. To place some hair over the ears and cheeks is to make bangs on the side of the client's face. I have no idea what the editor meant by "keep the hair up on one side." I don't think round, and squared faces should have bangs at all.
If you have to take state boards this is the book you will need.......2005-08-21
This book makes certain that you have a good understanding of the material before you take your state boards and this is very important. You probably will not have the same questions on the test, or they may be phrased differently: but the book definatly covers each chapter well!
Comprehensive and Detailed.......2002-07-24
When I was taking Cosmetology back in the 2000-01 school year, they recommended to purchase this version of Milady's Standard Textbook of Cosmetology. They were only available new in Canada and cost [money], and came with the theory book as well. Our teacher also had the old 1996 version of this textbook for sale, used. However, this is a better purchase. There are more pictures and colors, its not as drab as the previous version. I have to disagree with reviewers who said this is not a detailed book, I found it to be quite detailed and informative in its information. The book meant to be used in a classroom setting, where an instructor teachers and elaborates from this book. You cannot read this book and automatically cut hair, that is where the practical aspect of cosmetology comes in, when you are doing it hands on instead of reading. But this is a helpful tool for aspiring apprentices or students in cosmetology, whether you want to learn about Coloring, Perms, whatever the case, this is definately a worthwhile tool to have.
This is the book my Cosmetology School uses (2000 edition).......2001-11-28
I bought the 1996 version of this book in June of 2000 and within one month I was signed up for cosmetology school. Then I got to school and they used the 2000 edition so I was already prepared. For those who think this book doesn't go into detail please realize that this is a textbook and it is part of a series of books for teaching. There are 2 workbooks that go along with this book. One for Theory and one for Practical. I was given a 1990 edition of this book as well by a friend of mine. The most noticable change between the 3 editions is that the 2000 edition has more actual photographs and fewer illustrations. If you are using this book for school study then I do recommend you buy the state board exam review booklet. Then when you have free time you can quiz yourself. Just remember that this book is meant to be used along with an instructor. If you are looking for a haircutting book only then I don't think you want this one. It only has about 12 pictures.
Book Description
Branding has become so successful and so ubiquitous that even cultural institutions have embraced it. In this witty and trenchant social analysis, James Twitchell shows how churches, universities, and museums have learned to embrace Madison Avenue rather than risk losing market share.
Branded Nation uncovers a society where megachurches resemble shopping malls (and not by accident); where a university lives or dies on the talents of its image makers -- and its ranking in U.S. News & World Report; and where museums have turned to motorcycle exhibits and fashion shows to bolster revenue, even franchising their own institutions into brands. In short, says Twitchell, high culture is beginning to look more and more like the rest of our culture. But in perhaps his most subversive observation, he doesn't condemn this trend; on the contrary, he believes that branding may be invigorating our high culture, bringing it to new audiences and making it a more integral part of our lives.
Savvy, sharply observed, and bitingly funny, Branded Nation is sure to both enlighten and entertain.
Download Description
Branding, says James Twitchell, is nothing more than commercial storytelling; brands are the stories that are associated with products. (For example, the special taste of Evian, says Twitchell, is in the brand, not the water.) Branding has become so successful, so ubiquitous that even institutions that we thought were above branding, antithetical to branding, have succumbed. Such cultural institutions as religion, higher education, and the art world have learned to love Madison Avenue or lose market share. Of course, most ministers, university presidents, and museum directors will insist that branding has nothing to do with them, but as Twitchell brilliantly demonstrates in this witty, insightful examination of three of our most important cultural institutions, wherever supply exceeds demand branding follows.
Customer Reviews:
Engaging and informative, but not his best work.......2006-02-20
I first became aware of Jim Twitchell when I saw him speak at a conference in 2003. When he began his speech with a description of Florentine churches as one of the earliest examples of competitive branding, I was hooked, and have since read a number of his books. Branded Nation examines religion, academia, and art, and explains how these areas are just as permeated by the commercialism of our society as any other, despite the special status they've been accorded. His message resonated with me and served to explain changes I've seen in religion, education, and museums in my own lifetime. I would agree with another reviewer who mentioned that this title seems drag a bit in the museum section. Nonetheless, Twitchell's style is intellectually engaging, and takes the edge off what might be considered a cynical view.
Didn't do much for me..........2005-09-28
I don't disagree with the central ideas of this book, and the writing was simple and easy to understand. I just felt it was stretched out waaaaaay too long - the last chapter on museums, especially, just dragged. It felt like I was reading a college textbook that just trudged on and on. That's not necessarily bad, but this is a book for the masses, not a marketing class, and I just felt like it could have been edited down a lot more and still not have left anything out.
A "why do the way things work the way they do?" book.......2005-06-30
In this lively book, James Twitchell helps illuminate some of the interesting consequences when non-profits -- embodied in this book as Megachurch, College Inc, and Museumworld -- borrow branding techniques to market themselves.
I found the introduction a little long and academic (e.g., he talks about how the romanticism of Wordsorth and Keats influences modern branding). But the book gets progressively better. In my opinion, his best chapter is on the college (appropriate, since the author is a professor at the University of Florida).
Here's an illuminating analogy from the chapter (which he cites from another source): "If Consumer Reports functioned like U.S. News [in ranking colleges], it would rank cars on the amount of steel and plastic used in their construction, the opinions of competing car dealers, the driving skills of customers, the percentage of managers and sales people with MBAs, and the sticker price on the vehicle (the higher, the better)."
This book is not a polemic: it isn't trying to convince you that churches, colleges and musuems _shouldn't_ market themselves. It's just trying to explain what happens when nonprofits _do_ market themselves. I'll never look at the college admissions process or a musuem gift shop the same way again.
The writing is lively, and the book has a few well-chosen images to underscore its points. Bottom line: it's well worth a read. It's one of those books which help you understand why things are the way they are -- e.g., why modern musuems have restaurants, why universities have development offices, and why parking is crucial to the growth of mega-churches.
Ironic, but not pessimistic.......2005-04-22
Twitchell takes a very ironic look at the way churches, museums, and higher education have used branding to survive. It's ironic in that while the effects of this might seem undesirable or even embarrassing, we the public are merely getting what we ask for...we're just consumers. Then Twitchell explains why, in some cases, the effects of this branding are not undesirable after all.
The most insightful section of the book covers the branded-ness of higher education (appropriately so, since Twitchell is himself a professor). Twitchell describes American higher eduction choices as a barbell, with elite colleges such as Harvard on one end and "convenience" colleges (think Wal-Mart) on the other end, with the institutions in the middle feeling the real squeeze to differentiate themselves. Also included is an interesting look at the US News & World Report college list phenomenon as well as a look at why convenience colleges might not be as bad as you think. Twitchell even includes some practical insight on where college dollars might be best spent.
I found the megachurch section to be only so-so. Perhaps because I am very familiar with megachurches I found many of his points to be pretty boring. (Guess what - megachurches have modern sounding music!?) The section on Willow Creek finding its marketing niche (men) was interesting, however. If you are reading this book primarily to learn about megachurches I might recommend The Transformation of American Religion by Alan Wolfe instead. It is a bit more scientific and objective in its study.
Twtichell's writing style is a bit odd...not bad, but just a little different. At times he does ramble a bit but then suddenly includes a dense and insightful sentence. This style kept my interest but made the book a careful, not quick, read. Also important is the reader's willingness to buy into the definition of "brand" as STORY. This may be a mental jump for some.
In short, this is an enjoyable book. You won't look at college, church, or museums in the same way.
Marketing Where You Least Expected It.......2004-09-22
James Twitchell has written extensively on advertising and consumerism, and knows that consumers are not logical. If we were, he says, we would know that we needed, say, a laundry detergent, and would research to see what detergent was best, perhaps checking to see what the boffins at _Consumer Reports_ might recommend. Then we would take the recommendation to the grocery store, where we would see a very restricted number of possible logical choices. It doesn't work that way for detergent, nor, these days, does it work that way for churches, museums, or universities. In _Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld_ (Simon & Schuster) Twitchell has written a funny and scary evaluation of the pervasiveness of marketing in American life beyond the grocery shelves.
The problem with laundry detergents is that there are plenty of them, offered by many suppliers, and most of them are interchangeable. There is very little difference between them, so it is necessary for the manufacturers to create a story about the brand, how it is "clothesline-fresh", perhaps, or how the power-granules go to work on stains. Twitchell's thesis is that schools, museums, and churches are all supplying pretty much the same thing, and to up their market share, they are telling stories about themselves (branding) and as good consumers, we are going along with them. We think that museums have a higher calling than competing for a market share, that they don't really pay attention to the turnstiles, and that they are "... only the custodians of, shhh, please be quiet, don't touch, the deep truth." However true this may have been in the past, it is no longer. There has been a huge growth in the numbers of museums, the theme of a surplus of goods, though we don't usually view museums that way. The "modern, formal, self-conscious museum" is not what people go to as much as they go to theme exhibits, like "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the theme is the brand and holds the emotion. For decades there have been more college students than seats in the classroom, so the marketing had to begin. Harvard wouldn't admit as much, but it has a great brand. Twitchell (who is a professor of English at the University of Florida, an institution that does not avoid some withering remarks here) sniffs at the Harvard record, which he says lacks real substance. What's good about Harvard is not what comes out, but what goes in: "the best students, the most money, and the deepest faith in the brand." In churches, the product, epiphany or salvation, is undifferentiated, producing cut-throat competition for the stable forty percent of people who go to church regularly; this number does not go up, so churches are taking customers (sometimes known as parishioners) from one another. Twitchell examines the brand shifts in Protestantism that are the same as when Sam's Club comes to town: warehouse churches, of no particular denomination, on the outside of town with huge parking lots.
It is disconcerting and amusing to hear of these important spheres of life described in marketing terms, but Twitchell knows the lingo. All of them, for instance, are LBEs, or Location Based Entertainments. While his evaluations may be controversial, this is no polemic; Twitchell does not find branding bad; other marketing systems are simply antiquated. Brands have become motivators, "the basis not just of interactions but of interior actions." He thinks that identification with brands may be the way we will continue to spread common knowledge and beliefs, and that it thus may be the foundation of community. States are practicing branding (for instance, in advertising as vacation destinations), and countries are, too. Twitchell quotes a CEO who is looking at the big picture: "What makes us good at selling soap can help us sell America." Perhaps so, but even Twitchell speculates that the story of America, which could be best summarized as "complexity" may at this time be overwhelmed by the perceived story of "an arrogant rogue."
Average customer rating:
- What's next?
- A Well-Documented Book, A must read for everybody who eats
- If only more could read this book
- Why Do You Eat What You Eat?
- An Important Read in a Lackluster Format
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Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food and Culture, 3)
Marion Nestle
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0520240677 |
Amazon.com
In the U.S., we're bombarded with nutritional advice--the work, we assume, of reliable authorities with our best interests at heart. Far from it, says Marion Nestle, whose Food Politics absorbingly details how the food industry--through lobbying, advertising, and the co-opting of experts--influences our dietary choices to our detriment. Central to her argument is the American "paradox of plenty," the recognition that our food abundance (we've enough calories to meet every citizen's needs twice over) leads profit-fixated food producers to do everything possible to broaden their market portion, thus swaying us to eat more when we should do the opposite. The result is compromised health: epidemic obesity to start, and increased vulnerability to heart and lung disease, cancer, and stroke--reversible if the constantly suppressed "eat less, move more" message that most nutritionists shout could be heard.
Nestle, nutrition chair at New York University and editor of the 1988 Surgeon General Report, has served her time in the dietary trenches and is ideally suited to revealing how government nutritional advice is watered down when a message might threaten industry sales. (Her report on byzantine nutritional food-pyramid rewordings to avoid "eat less" recommendations is both predictable and astonishing.) She has other "war stories," too, that involve marketing to children in school (in the form of soft-drink "pouring rights" agreements, hallway advertising, and fast-food coupon giveaways), and diet-supplement dramas in which manufacturers and the government enter regulation frays, with the industry championing "free choice" even as that position counters consumer protection. Is there hope? "If we want to encourage people to eat better diets," says Nestle, "we need to target societal means to counter food industry lobbying and marketing practices as well as the education of individuals." It's a telling conclusion in an engrossing and masterfully panoramic exposé. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our overefficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being.
Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is very big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view.
Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics--not science, not common sense, and certainly not health.
No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this pathbreaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.
Customer Reviews:
What's next?.......2006-06-19
When I came back to USA in 1990 from Japan after 10 years, I was a little shocked. It's there are so many obese. I stop seeing proportionate people as I admired once before (since I'm from Japan; we were small and rather plain looking.) What happened! I thought it's that soda-pop as I always watch the countless gallon bottles my next customers are buying at the every grocery shopping. As I was wondering, this nation sued tobacco companies. So I kept wondering, why don't they blame major soda-pop companies for obese. Soda-pop companies are not the sole culprit, but I was surprised to find that tabacco companies and sweet companies are somehow related. Anyhow, whatever the policy that the government had or have, if any, failed. I really hope to do something to improve American diet. Sooner is better. (I go to large Oriental Grocery Store at least once a month. You will be amazed how much size of green section they carry. It's almost 10 times of what Giants or Safeway carries, for example.)
A Well-Documented Book, A must read for everybody who eats.......2005-11-30
I found this book to be very informative about the political workings of the food industry. I agree with several other reviewers that it is a little dull and in an factual style (kind of reminds me of a history book. However I like that kind of reading, so it doesn't bother me.)
This book's basic premise is that the food industry's purpose is to sell as much food as possible. The food industry doesn't care about its consumers and encourages them to eat more than they need, produces lots of useless, cheap, junk food, and will do whatever it can within the political system (mostly legal, but sometimes illegal. The author documents one such example of price collusion) to set up an environment that is the most favorable to its interests.
The book documents how the FDA, Congress, and government agencies are influenced by the food industry. It provides details about the food industry's lobbying, studies and research grants funded by various segments of the food industry, the food industry's attempts to gain brand loyalty though school contracts, conflicts with the school lunch program, and attempts to maximize sales through bonuses for the schools. It chronicles the rise of the supplement industry and their involvement with the FDA.
The author does seem to have a somewhat leftist agenda in the last chapter in giving recommendations; but with that exception, I thought the overall tone of the book was neutral and strictly documentary. It's good solid book which people who are interested in their health or the American food industry should read.
If only more could read this book.......2005-08-07
This book touches upon issues that everyone is aware of but chooses to ignore. The author makes this obvious but in an non-condescending way which is much appreciated. He ties the biases of the food industry in with other industries such as the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries. Drawing the connections between these three and the governmental regulatory agencies that work with/against them respectively (USDA, FDA, ATF), the author illustrates just how much of a problem this is. Not only was I fascinated by the issue, but I found the writing very accessible. Well done and it's too bad more haven't read it.
Why Do You Eat What You Eat?.......2005-08-06
Nestle presents a well researched, balanced description of how our market system in the US can hurt its citizens if proper checks and balances aren't applied. Our system only works if consumers are informed and can act on that information. Instead, it is abundantly evident that food producers (who are after all in the business of making money, not protecting our health)are experts at manipulating our food choices by advertising to children, lobbying for food labels that mislead the public, and generally doing everything they can to relax regulations meant to protect us that may stand in the way of increased revenue. Nestle's research in many ways is analogous to the saga of big tobacco, but food as she points out is much more nuanced -- you can't tell people just stop eating food like you can cigarettes. So who is at fault? Its not just industry, its our political system, our regulating agencies, school boards, and advocates. Nestle's writing is fine, just too detailed for some audiences at some points. Her research seems exhaustive (and is exhaustively referenced) and she speaks from first hand experience. Nestle is courageous for writing this and it will surely become a classic in public health literature.
An Important Read in a Lackluster Format.......2005-06-15
Here's the thing.
As one reviewer mentioned I think the bulk of negative reviewers have not actually read this book.
The author is a nuritionist, who says that despite the really basic nutritional advice of most nutritionists which has not significantly changed over the course of a half century, the public still views nutritional advice as difficult to understand.
Why?
Because the food industry makes more money when it sells more products. It has a vested interest in getting people to at least buy (if not eat) more food. Most importantly, the least healthy foods (i.e. highly processed foods) have the highest profit margins. To ensure profits, they pressure the government to avoid informing the public in an easily understandable format that they should eat less and avoid processed foods.
Is she saying this is the ONLY reason why americans are fat? No. But the fact that many, many, many americans have problems figuring out what the heck to eat is heavily due to the food lobbyists, a fact which she goes into in nauseating detail.
And therein lies the problem.
Nestle is an Academic and she writes like one. Anyone familiar with non-fiction in the style of Nickle and Dimed, Fast Food Nation, or even Island of the Colorblind will find Food Politics irritating. Not because the book is poorly written, per se, but because it's dull.
She obscures critical points between reams of facts, her narrative style plods along instead of floating or skipping, and I frequently felt like hurling the book across the room screaming get to the point already.
But I did finish the book.
Because the message is far more important then the limited medium. This book is critically important in that it hi-lights the sad reality that billions of dollars being spent vying for a place on the tip of your fork. Sadly very little of this money bears your health in mind.
Book Description
This is the first English-language translation of Jean BaudrillardÆs contemporary classic on the sociology of consumption. Originally published in 1970, the book was one of the first to focus on the processes and meaning of consumption in contemporary culture. At a time when others were fixated with the production process, Baudrillard could be found making the case that consumption is now the axis of culture. He demonstrates how consumption is related to the goal of economic growth and he maps out a social theory of consumption. Many of the themes that would later make Baudrillard famous are sketched out here for the first time. In particular, his concepts of simulation and the simulacrum receive their earliest systematic treatment. Written at a time when Baudrillard was moving away from both Marxism and institutional sociology, the book is more systematic than his later works. He is still pursuing the task of locating consumption in culture and society. So the reader will find here his most organized discussion of mass media culture, the meaning of leisure, and anomie in affluent society. There is also a fascinating chapter on the body that shows yet again Baudrillard's extraordinary prescience in flagging the importance of vital subjects in contemporary culture long before his colleagues. Baudrillard is widely acclaimed as a key thinker in sociology, communication, and cultural studies. This book makes available to English-speaking readers one of his most important works. It will be devoured by the steadily expanding circle of Baudrillard scholars, and it will also be required reading for students of the sociology of culture, communication, and cultural studies.
Customer Reviews:
Symbolic exchange.......2002-07-01
This book is an earlier text of Baudrillard. Baudrillard is considered as a major theorist of postmodernism. But at the time he wrote this book, he was not postmodernist but Marxist. In 1973, Baudrillard divorced with Marxism. But before that year, he maintained the Marxist stance. His main subject was the political economy in Marxist style and the society of consumption in Frankfurt school¡¯s style. He was a pupil of Henry Lefevre who expanded the scope of Marxism into the study of everyday life. Baudrillard took the area his mentor opened up, but approached it somewhat differently: he borrowed frameworks of structuralism. He transformed Marx¡¯s distinction of use value/exchange value into the semiotics of consumption. Society is the field where symbolic exchange, in Marcel Mauss¡¯s term, takes place. What is exchanged in symbolic exchange is not use value but exchange (or symbolic) value. We consume the object not only of its use value but of its symbolic value. Object is exchanged as sign in symbolic exchange. Goods could signify the social status. Object could be desired not only in its use value but in its symbolic value that make difference to its owner from others: consumption could be interpreted as the logic of social distinction. In later texts, he asserted that capitalist society is centered not on production but on consumption. There could be not much objection upto this point. But, he argues, the logic of social distinction is not produced by consumer. It¡¯s the system of signification that is imposed on consumer. In this point, Baudrillard depicts such an unreal picture of iron cage as Frankfurt school did. The system of signification is illustrated as the something of a big brother we can¡¯t exercise any say. But that kind of image is not the one we experience in daily life. Marx said, ¡®Men make history, but not in their own choice.¡¯ Social fact like language transcend individual. We didn¡¯t choose our own mother tongue. We were born into it. But it doesn¡¯t deny the point that we make history. The system Baudrillard delineated is not unearthly fantasy. But where does it come from? It¡¯s the creature we make and change day by day. But in Baudrillard¡¯s world, such a point is lost. On Baudrillard¡¯s picture, the individual is lost. Baudrillard only takes a shot of horror film. In terms of methodology, Baudrillard makes non-sense.
Book Description
View the
Table of Contents. Read the
Introduction.
"Jenkins is one of us: a geek, a fan, a popcult packrat. He's also an incisive and unflinching critic. His affection for the subject and sharp eye for 'what it all means' are an unbeatable combination. This is fascinating, engrossing and enlightening reading."
—Cory Doctorow, author of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town and co-editor of Boing Boing
Henry Jenkins's pioneering work in the early 1990s promoted the idea that fans are among the most active, creative, critically engaged, and socially connected consumers of popular culture and that they represent the vanguard of a new relationship with mass media. Though marginal and largely invisible to the general public at the time, today, media producers and advertisers, not to mention researchers and fans, take for granted the idea that the success of a media franchise depends on fan investments and participation.
Bringing together the highlights of a decade and a half of groundbreaking research into the cultural life of media consumers,
Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers takes readers from Jenkins's progressive early work defending fan culture against those who would marginalize or stigmatize it, through to his more recent work, combating moral panic and defending Goths and gamers in the wake of the Columbine shootings. Starting with an interview on the current state of fan studies, this volume maps the core theoretical and methodological issues in Fan Studies. It goes on to chart the growth of participatory culture on the web, take up blogging as perhaps the most powerful illustration of how consumer participation impacts mainstream media, and debate the public policy implications surrounding participation and intellectual property.
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