Buying in. The secret Dialogue between what we buy and who we are. - Hardcover

Walker, Rob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400063914 ISBN 13: 9781400063918

Publisher: Random House Inc, 2008

Synopsis

A counterintuitive analysis of marketing and culture in modern-day life reveals how consumers embrace marketing efforts to use brands to express their cultural, political, and artistic identities and examines how the relationship between consumer and consumed has become altered by marketers' ability to blur the lines among advertising, entertainment, and public space. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

"A fresh and fascinating exploration of the places where material culture and identity intersect."--Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food

"A compelling blend of cultural anthropology and business journalism."--Time

"Few observers have plumbed the subterranean poetry of marketing as thoroughly as Walker."--New York Times Book Review

"Superbly readable . . . a thoughtful and unhurried investigation into consumerism . . . marked by meticulous research and careful conclusions."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Witty . . . Walker unravels what he calls the Desire Code, that tension between wanting to fit in and wanting to stand out, wanting to be unique and yet somehow attached to something greater than ourselves."--Times-Picayune

"Provocative . . . richly reported."--USA Today

"Fascinating."--Newsweek

"Terrific."--Miami Herald

About the Author:

Rob Walker writes the weekly column “Consumed,” a blend of business journalism and cultural anthropology, for The New York Times Magazine. Previously, he created and wrote the popular “Ad Report Card” column for Slate, and he has contributed to a wide range of publications, from Fast Company and Fortune to The New Republic and AdBusters. Walker continues to write about the secret dialogue between what we buy and who we are at his own website, Murketing.com. He lives in Savannah, Georgia, with his wife, photographer Ellen Susan.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1400063914
• ISBN 13: 9781400063918
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 291