Saturday, February 23, 2008

We Know What You Want

Great book.

I have to confess I didn't actually finish reading it - I gave it away with most of my other books when I moved, but I loved what I did read of it. Not only was it incredibly informative, but it was illustrated, and therefore compelling.

Some folks on Amazon have bashed the book for not being a boring, statistics-laden, un-illustrated droll 200 pages of theory and techniques. They're entitled to their opinions, but I'm interested in being interested, and I'm interested in making material accessible and interesting to as wide a range of people as possible. So, I loved this book, and I love other books like it - like the beautifully-illustrated books that Crimethinc. produces.

Besides, the book was written to be an illustrated example of the techniques that Douglas Rushkoff pointed to in his seminal work, Coercion. The haters - who are probably PR flacks - didn't bother to mention that. It is the main reason Rushkoff got a writing credit - because it's his material.

The illustrations in the book often used real ads to show how certain techniques were being used against us. And there were plenty of anecdotes about the history of advertising and marketing and propaganda, so there is plenty of direct learning, and plenty of opportunity to reference source material.

...I picked up Expect Resistance, today. It's awesome. These guys, Crimethinc., are my heroes.

2 comments:

martin said...

Hey thanks for the commendation Peter. I really enjoyed writing the book, and I'm glad it's still being read. How about you do a review on Amazon and counteract the PR flacks.

cheers,

Martin

Peter said...

Done!