The 100 Best TV Commercials: . . . and Why They Worked - Hardcover

Kanner, Bernice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0812929950 ISBN 13: 9780812929959

Publisher: Crown, 1999

Synopsis

Who cares about commercials?

All of us, that's who. The television commercial has become a part of the American narrative, as important a signifier of our times as a great work of literature or
a blockbuster motion picture. Indeed, we often care more about the commercials than we do about the programming itself (ask any Super Bowl aficionado). The ad is art . . . and some of the art is brilliant.
        The hundred commercials in this book are brilliant. They were selected by a team of experts at the Leo Burnett Company, creators of Tony the Tiger and the Maytag Repairman, in collaboration with dozens of advertising pros from around the globe and throughout the industry. Their choices represent the very best that the advertising world has to offer. Together, they portray a half century of human hopes, wishes, and dreams.
        Bernice Kanner, whose "On Madison Avenue" column in New York magazine was required reading for more than a decade, has taken each of these small masterpieces and analyzed what made them work, why they so successfully moved us, and how they broke through the clutter to become a part of the cultural landscape.
        From the Marlboro Man to the Energizer Bunny, The 100 Best TV Commercials provides a hundred important lessons in how we communicate and persuade today. It is vital reading for those who create our commercial culture . . . and those who live in it.

About this title

Review:

For better or worse, television advertising occasionally becomes a touchstone in our lives. Chevrolet's "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie," Alka-Seltzer's spicy meatball, the Federal Express fast talker, the Energizer Bunny, "Bo Knows" Nike, Quaker Oats' Mikey--these and a select group of other video campaigns get so embedded in our psyches that we can easily recall them, word-for-word and scene-by-scene, many years after they last were aired. The 100 Best TV Commercials ... and Why They Worked, by advertising and marketing columnist Bernice Kanner, takes a critical but fond look at the best commercials in 15 categories, including "Show and Tell," "The Sound of Music," "Animal Magnetism," "Comparatively Speaking," and "Killer Comedy." While the book unabashedly "honors esthetics more than effectiveness in moving product," Kanner still seeks to celebrate those "artful and artistic" efforts that manage to push their various objects or ideas more successfully than the competition. One pleasant surprise: more than half of those chosen will be unfamiliar to most Americans, as they aired only in the U.K., France, Japan, Spain, and eight other countries that take their TV commercials as seriously as advertisers do in the U.S. --Howard Rothman

From the Publisher:

WHAT MAKES A COMMERCIAL GREAT?
Commercials have become a part of the American narrative, as important a signifier of our times as a great work of literature or a blockbuster motion picture. But what seperates the truly brilliant ads from the rest?

The landmark achievements presented here provide a hundred eloquent answers to that question. Selected by a team of experts at the Leo Burnett Company, creators of Tony the Tiger and the Maytag Repairman, in collaboration with dozens of advertising pros from around the globe and throughout the industry, they represent the very best that the advertising world has to offer.

Bernice Kanner, whose "On Madison Avenue" column in New York magazine was required reading for more than a decade, has taken each of these small masterpieces and analyzed what made them work, why they so successfully moved us, and how they broke through the clutter to become a part of the cultural landscape.

From the Marlboro Man to the Energizer Bunny, The 100 Best TV Commercials is vital reading for those who create our commercial culture . . . and those who live in it.

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0812929950
• ISBN 13: 9780812929959
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272