The blurb on the cover of the book I'm reading right now says, "Simply the best book about advertising I have ever read." -- Neil Postman. Neil Postman's name sounds familiar, but I don't really know who he is. Regardless, if the blurb's wrong, then there have been some some really awesome books written about advertising, because this is a great book. If you go back through my archives, I'm guessing I haven't called too many things great. This is a great book. Despite being 437 pages, it's hard to put down. It's called "Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign" (by Randall Rothenberg) and it's basically a behind-the-scenes look at the 1992 Subaru ad campaign -- the history of Subaru, the history of advertising, and what the life cycle of this process looked like. You get to read about all of the competing agencies, all of the pitch meetings, the commercial development, the filming, the post-production, the media plan... every angle is covered, every backstory is explained, and, despite my relatively tiny amount of interest in cars and why one is better or worse than another, this is a tremendously well-written, fascinating, engrossing book.

I can't say enough good things about it. I wish I'd read it sooner. It was actually recommended to me about 4 years ago (it's about 10 years old), between college and law school, when I was playing around with the idea of trying to get a job at an advertising agency. I had some "informational interviews" and almost signed up for a portfolio-putting-together class at the School of Visual Arts, but decided it made more sense to go to law school. But a bunch of people recommended the book, and now I can see why. If you've ever thought about working in advertising, or even if not. It's definitely on the short list of the best books I've read this year, without a doubt.