Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
    The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
    The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
    Ebook468 pages7 hours

    The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism

    By Thomas Frank

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    While the youth counterculture remains the most evocative and best-remembered symbol of the cultural ferment of the 1960s, the revolution that shook American business during those boom years has gone largely unremarked. In this fascinating and revealing study, Thomas Frank shows how the youthful revolutionaries were joined—and even anticipated —by such unlikely allies as the advertising industry and the men's clothing business.

    "[Thomas Frank is] perhaps the most provocative young cultural critic of the moment."—Gerald Marzorati, New York Times Book Review

    "An indispensable survival guide for any modern consumer."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

    "Frank makes an ironclad case not only that the advertising industry cunningly turned the countercultural rhetoric of revolution into a rallying cry to buy more stuff, but that the process itself actually predated any actual counterculture to exploit."—Geoff Pevere, Toronto Globe and Mail

    "The Conquest of Cool helps us understand why, throughout the last third of the twentieth century, Americans have increasingly confused gentility with conformity, irony with protest, and an extended middle finger with a populist manifesto. . . . His voice is an exciting addition to the soporific public discourse of the late twentieth century."—T. J. Jackson Lears, In These Times

    "An invaluable argument for anyone who has ever scoffed at hand-me-down counterculture from the '60s. A spirited and exhaustive analysis of the era's advertising."—Brad Wieners, Wired Magazine

    "Tom Frank is . . . not only old-fashioned, he's anti-fashion, with a place in his heart for that ultimate social faux pas, leftist politics."—Roger Trilling, Details
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateOct 21, 1998
    ISBN9780226924632
    The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
    Author

    Thomas Frank

    Thomas Frank is a student success author, YouTuber, and speaker who has been helping college students achieve their goals since 2010. He is the founder of College Info Geek, a blog, YouTube channel, and podcast that reaches over 600,000 students each month, and has been featured on U.S. News, FOX Business’ The Willis Report, Business Insider, and more. Thomas graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in MIS. He spends his days making videos, skateboarding, and resisting the temptation to buy a trampoline.

    Read more from Thomas Frank

    Related to The Conquest of Cool

    Related ebooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Conquest of Cool

    4/5

    57 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      In “The Conquest of the Cool” Frank argues that a new style of consumerism grew out of a change in the style of advertising in the late 1950s. He provides a well-written and well-documented history of the business philosophies of the major advertising agencies after World War II and how that philosophy and the agencies changed through the 1960s. He also looks at advertising campaigns in the soft drink and men’s fashion industries. After reading the book I was confused. I wanted to like it, his writing style is easy to read and his points are well made, I enjoy the commentaries he writes for the Wall Street Journal and have been looking forward to reading his book “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” However, this book makes me question the quality of his critical thinking and made me wonder if he should stick to writing about current events and leave historical analysis to historians. The transition from the post-war style of scientific hard sell to the creative advertising campaigns of the 1960s is carefully documented by Frank as is the transition back to scientific hard sell in the 1970s that he mentions. If Frank’s intention was to examine the changes in the advertising industry in the decades after World War II why did he look ahead to the trends of the 1990s, when the book was written? Mass consumerism and national advertising campaigns were less than a century old when he was writing the book. If the 1990s were worth looking at to support his argument, the pre war period should be worth a look at to see if his theory was sound. Instead of a close look at the pre-war period we get one passing reference to the ‘creative’ surge of the 1930s, a passing reference that could indicate that the ‘creative revolution’ the book documents could be less a revolution and more of a swing in a repeating cycle. It is the Doyle Dane Bernbach campaign for the 1959 Volkswagen campaign that Frank credits or the birth of the creative movement of the 1960s. However, it is at best a rebirth, since Frank also tells us, in passing, about creative ads in the 1930s. While discussing the images in the early Volkswagen ads he describes them as “black and white and startlingly minimalist” without mentioning their resemblance to the iconography of the fading Beat coffeehouse scene which was black, white and minimalist. Frank argues that the creative shift in advertising created America’s ‘youth culture’ of revolution, change and ‘mass individualism’. However, the Coke girls of the 1920s represent revolutionary change with their bobbed hair and, for the era, scanty, clothing. The fact that the phrase ‘youth culture’ was coined in the 1960s does not indicate that there was no culture of youth before that date. A rose was a rose even before they were called ‘roses.’ The images used in the 1920s to sell Coke were arguably a greater shift from the images used in the 1910s than the shift in Pepsi’s images from the 1950s ‘Sociables” ads to the 1960s ‘Pepsi Generation’ ads. Early in the book Frank says he is not seeking “to settle the debate over whether advertising causes cultural change or reflects it” but the only claims he presents are that advertising does indeed our culture. (Frank, 31) He mentions an advertising campaign for the Sierra Club that was “credited by some as having launched environmentalism.” (Frank, 76) and an adman that worked on Pepsi campaigns reflects on “the guilts of maybe having caused this preoccupation with youth, maybe even contributed to some of the rebelliousness that was going on within the country.” (Frank, 173) If Frank was not endorsing the claim that advertising shapes culture simply stating that Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring existed or that the Civil Rights movement predated the advertising campaign could have helped maintained neutrality. Even mentioning the enormity of the ego required to make comments such as these would helped create an illusion of neutrality. Even though Frank returns to the topic time and time again he fails to provide credible evidence that the ‘hip consumerism’ he discusses is a result of the advertising industry. He even offers a more reasonable explanation for the change in consumer habits. The decline in importance of the Depression/ World War II generation and the rise, in never before seen numbers, of a new generation raised in a time of plenty seems to be a reasonable cause for new purchasing habits of the 1960s consumer. Frank’s treatment of the advertising industry is completely lacking in the skepticism than he said buyers developed for the scientific hard selling tactics of the 1950s. If he had treated the industry and its claims with the same doubt that inspired the change to more creative advertisements it would have been a more persuasive book.
    • 4/5
      A friend recommended this to me when I was complaining that it's hard to find good books on post-war advertising, and I'm very glad he did. I've no interest at all in Frank's recent populist books, but this is the one that benefits from that populism: it was a dissertation, and retains the mind-numbing rigor needed by that form; but it's very nicely written and filled with pleasing anecdotes that pull you through the dull bits.

      The introduction, particularly, is a masterly statement of the way people--professional historians and we lumpen masses--perceive the sixties: as an era of 'pure' culture that was then coopted by 'corporations' or, failing that, an era in which people 'subverted' the corporate culture that was fed to them via mass media. Frank's research on the culture and theory of advertising firms pretty much destroys this vision: he shows, convincingly, that advertising firms and management theorists pre-empted many, indeed, almost all, of the 60s' 'radical' cultural and social criticisms; if that's not enough, he then does a nice job interpreting the advertising of the time to show that the copy writers and designers and even managers were also putting those criticisms *into* their advertisements.

      The later chapters aren't as exciting (particularly the chapter on men's wear says nothing you wouldn't get from common sense), but it's worth reading nonetheless.

      This mix of theoretically informed social criticism, business history and cultural history is pretty rare, but clearly there should be more of it. Frank gestures to the idea that the nineties were, similarly, preempted by sixties and seventies advertising firms and management theorists; I wish he'd stop worrying about Kansas, hunker down, and really work through the social movements and business history of the last two decades.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    The Conquest of Cool - Thomas Frank

    ;L ^book_preview_excerpt.html}rF aB(-o %Jb[4$m짯f?}9O~l?ْf=Hg'~?}i(By|Gɧ_fp>˯O?|=Ͻ-kU6BXe/\練.APr#)|պz!2j'9h/ r]B,[]PCADM?LeM4q \Я.fy>mj(DJXn -+&?aeS~59v<}avkIeySv}ſ?dod[w٧Q!/nu<. >;Ez+?!*O_}郧81WRDK3nͦ޹,V*_w}+ZMw>w'ً^}wq"wW'՛${*{s^>s~ى,. wf'7߳_B{q;zw|k_?4#;o~sԈB޸jpg]`5}r.4>݄l#;eYJ68An=$jZ_;Ovu۲8Ǎ^E~tծ+q:؏Q&?R>sdjmN^A?[Q.>jU^bvU{f8kmKd ԲcC+Tp &R CC8~z>xw+B% *(_ kPo]rܺ" Zp+>[ŒO\zm7ʂI[?;YX)ۻPĞwdN\ )2ؓd*UoS&IM;zG(ֵ=>Vש8_,T0|Bȿ0O0.N<eu5U9-ʢaMwï7K/#{Bv@m貣f+?ɻ7~s%gۍ@: u1Tp*n/}ʪ-7{tGx`nϮEv[qٶrUa7r&L>\V~%zgP|ݽ}ֲ*tv'pT׾9/YkNRq`^ ep ; -<tX^Ut$7OYV;5%*e? $^XMwgcP7mD8udtзm j`yQuz>D]\G+B &R08O+hTd6{nC+ x _YwK_GJبRHDI$)iBZ]2QԵ?JQx5+y%(wbBPh+LW>4Zј{-i,푋@73DE7a'%J}NZwTpON~ ^|~uWM KOk}&:ymíoWCa@-ՋIؒRcVK<)Ό(&lSHr1)$1t\7Z{zdNL"]g)6ګB4m#RKVASnDq0YW7r/{WBbmcn7;6 kjVWAUM)g*ʂK?PWXRw*fC'"4䣕[P"i{=L>^VX8Pˑ+^8m.;fvm)Zvv?E\]n%(%R@POlan;gNl J' @|7O77hdGV+դأ˫]pDM[6zxVG"?#YใxW$9R6n\{"jAcB+aվYr Q1HX~W%1Tg8܄!cVJyo GZFk47j-_*j84*Uʮ6x19e{!6=BHơzw^ʌx'<6֫Z ,^ۭ|?{k}H ړ?$-pg~PE%؝<س)ܤGhϡ3vvk39SC[`c҅M p>­tWa9ߔɓ^[9qQ4p KEɣƇ^G't4ko[5k|T10G#Vvehf7,@_\6)vruh:xlR{%P>IX(ZL v",pȽceU+l*uNB`ĺDL@-\y:G4]û-0 65B"_PcxƠT<hJM*bqBX6lI&CܾxwE[%6[N>+QP*@ӏVBѿ'ЂZ=%XbAYHbne~NL%7~Tu z#:BC]Y1)l.L-A캝5CERryмh*WV.nIÝegaBIY D"񣂗6X/9\UCжngքXu< 6TCF]4B2߉+]|5v,/x\* :] "fFcS@u⣕Vk+>sUyh=rtU֞ħz+ AϷ4z̢WRJJT{q]#:V/j}OʺOcvO6ތًPסPf ٵF¯Bn^^"[ ʾFuQ["^d Д=85lR`G> am(D|B$"Q\{KU1މB/4̵~zЩN)A"n7h!1,>|1Q 1&d8`AH~d};l%D&_ټPғ@QFEЂo\Ld,}j?$*`KqqM0x攇 Zҭ+˗}dO/ޜ}wi%NmhwٵaXY ,'9ȆS=v9{F`SDA3wmtvrN!1>^xLgd1|/m:Q.W񽑯9%2շIuH)E@pCR2q5P$9+軦2pM^D{r  `THK@4N !˟d%8idQ^}ENVy_>8Fw f3{)& 0w+RM]ϜKV[@ hpp 6iCwU 4ɞ?#!%Le^nXS 蜕ΠFDŽJ\ނ:nɠ4r;C jG,]!?tYF Q2w'W'g'W,xŻ˳۷o닓y'/~Xq[LN+tuoR:.߄ƣ":} 9? 1ṞlBs!bC# z4De{J/=%6*Hu =ˎE[cR:DE. ί=x.\j]u#7"G/XLе/,7i!C)a{3y-êMEUV]0Pg/&J{_SkeC) Kx o,|*ƭIfbRd^iM/˥fdkwN aNfy>&?eV/"Q`}#s$~RϽ߄>L>bާ'cf{`ZRԯD5KgT;`1N8X0D5,nKd ~K)fޤH#E/B♂s*8yơ (yeOr`.20 StbƯ[!gh53ܺ#"be[+@"5`# (bp L05gzZ݂_ E2֊~JZbfnh>fJ rdΆȩ0ɳ"tNWm@㑩` ۫nX5J4 G XJI`]%۫ #Xd`I~4UOTOB$_o7\~1?>r1z&oź*Xn$djR++DFΝ-@Rl@}afp[B2ZidA8Vy~]џe)A$y)SV%r_P9&VWu;ʘKT,04ߏLM˝:V Zɤ8ߡ(x.UTujDH0:FgL:7]+AѢh(qGɦUbHkhaWAMnbRf>;;+P3-\wRbKS/q,k)Ls?) 6Lش߰ASJqwɍA @S&&sjG+@Tc@'mu=vn7~To"F/tOJ)ת#&h<pp%mzT՗q6q%~XbTjZBeA6ЕɍUɪjdFu()D+-0T-HR}ٱrBh-AӢ%X4Xy0}"1͌vPhN,|e"͛ o$%|w i/rKbS֙i{CK5Єo%ǑxvB5`@%Fi0-'0<*=?ޚ@ Z=oiIG_O$IA9*bBs!vep1s (מCH4{bFHۍYM>J6jth+{nl\ "{W`!g9J?FZZs\HNlhń*BO(q@E3PQ SjA;dkbW],c <${ńN]jVkkL,FTʬϐ T_ւ L*cD~']M,a,aZd/_ z2" U!Zbi咻!Rj%4z])aCuK_?#)tW^y8*;~jˁmMulf8V~G6Zc-Gl&N$9J]_ʢ*aYMGA6ML]tG&uT4IB1!C;)ΐV$]zZ^̎%BUR"ei BmPD 1*& pC+_ޣwWvqiޖFپ?xX^iWkr9$HR㪔 ]{\:E^<>8ظzjwb*gRNT~"1zrы^{2%(~3"L@iWi6rHԀa< * _خ҆6%ɅW$YQX̟] lQP=/HNҡC<*+W+ٚwӝ.k{I>r*(6-1لdpx]|G0XaЮ&YmZă҃;4ZVYbft&*~.ǵ?|P"qZjH[4p188NX c)'ĺάֆrOJB.&=xe&i\hnJ."`#VN̮8rOȓ&"``ՎGY-=-xC3urBG6*mwwWγoNO?Ώ^k]՛w?pH]|w9@Z.g3amKV}u -CboQW'_ymɘ_uȳ3`P:v{῱ure~&8fbIg>,W#{vTY$҈,s}Lj¤'|LU X"rz'KneC#5OEh¦(,]NA`֨}BgZ,uʚW[#r#5۠.OYY/=Y`JCB!<";;)mvJ Si%` Rnab/P܍$d/s3*Q A"h92-Sa9 ZӾtP͛ԝ$,!8&㠤Ff[Jzua(:v[Ŝ)sRa1M`D iO%7(-:(2vceV&yeݖMљv(̍z=N xQ@0l5""Q/lϮ-p]do4O[>\X5@Ç :$0,/:CGjR;C甛Ӎ" u8jjYH Hn v|ҡ63ߎ8[-d숷CaQNhr-i- FN V(S!"XEQ!v9s3Uw7xiܽ .nxzqbhv$;Iܸ)mDXWƎHH>j;T1eeG-~mDO?|dnJN 9 =v%G"J ޔQ4V`1ڛi#ɑ'C_jd"Bz"X:4T#-/f ]Wk T?u3 c4uF]ScTpݴ7 SmPJ],C`b#^ jY ˡ]rjeOߠfP(JtuhƳRJG壱R#{4\Gk#)4VIV+QBÿwNubpT^T.))]իE@(CѶ휸b Ҧ t\b1NqܬNi;S4 Oz bG7uDXj3B?Y]ݳcWN}n Ozt|8Rc&wZέed{>hg`5rSZC[g=dk8ZElMb݈l1K=Fz$qòUsvBiAD3L ,4<5|ҷV4-AkčD`Xg4` s3d-՜e MQBp GSM4Dx6!஡Q;wfyZd~si,F*2??TcOh\eLHs kMƎ0SC+os&B3!Tރ( ]5v%kyY'56hnAG8Q!l_jX\2E|퓪gUe'E۠@֣\J@[uJ;ڙ婵}Y2yZvgRٔrtM',SL< &lmb[8U^AذIh/A5-2?f1h:ژKN MɄ 9 ̽hLh]MFiJuL0mцd.v~GJx uVбZ iz骔GQn(m{AbCP!>rK y؉ZzXKzcޔ8dnȇ ;`yez#FZQ׏S IL4z$Ř" )#}aQD F4"IՆ׍d/:8w!on4܊m,"=DfYB6t}15nԁ1:Iz$GLuʐ,nL.:>.ouF6"!Ck{6%rmlvKa"e&eGT[ӌcuvb0vhF%gV_%4[h#ֶi;LFס9[$w匴)3+IG6saK7`" fBߩp\!ƂK9W`M:R[q;,ױ%sU#)@.]b+͌ث4%XGߌ\> w0hdϑ Zm [\-U8xrWi&{qfUtTkjNz`ϘziqZ^B7I~pү`e;ճ@'0}7(}:V~rU1,nDKZ`;`v>nb!KMc g|mjYp2X*%:X2o0c\Mgy\fs`j6Djg gQ+Vf]7F@pyc;Y;>Af#VdaCTUba T/xDILYʤaY+8Nx#ªF{@A&<-ojŒ_*j7>N:Sym-EIb#y^Ї@:*CLX;?סX`SԶ>O1"]Wg<}cbA$!;m;89ٜ UC5| ON-ݢ5́gƗqg)kZW XW;o襯[SCcbKd}Ey}]}#GڥYBDXJV{v/RqF̥ z*7D b(F,o[k9`)6HjCê8ȒM96cޕ;*Kd_5[!>\@AlƋkjcߴ/N4n(C*,WL5}XS`w ;@6ߡd8Lw 9x"IӭFe0w9ט(v۵Ll0MeA[c<>Y Vj{bm M<4_̂\<~=,' l7Dk< 8pc&r}̌"V1O{c@m<ぎ#?m:9>`C бN-Z>K5 U-$( Mn7:;zJo`DX[!wml/ja[vZNZhq%q~}wTJsr*S37elqKI*%-^MP@ġ>04I2Qh],5vڠLKߪ5e-d0hV)+uPhԴ0 hw%TZꭧlb-rj<{Bp,.`DpD_ Z4c{لIțd'@7`/f);-js}: q_y?F gh/&9d b^kƴiLN*ec$nXuLjA$0m߆HQ"c{q=_X- kS46kƫr*VC*(,GjX \2BZXa*8]^b8y8YP\Z9Zgt ;ZPN̖;OUBlq5}aUz'ؾoS7Viz'"޳CfQDҏ(ӎs|!hԲt4:/AoᥣAb-'U9y_j nY:#,%~ צ|LIڷUJlhKI>fC:ՙ}}1FbK.OL{hcQo0`%U*[ok.Ƌ;ZNt[Ƿ=h{*'}ׂʹYekfD-gDyg+;M<8Y|x1þx6la`+_w\1r?~h#GlNH* 4M73L@aA^\-2ÓBtSfv<<({b+s:Fqh$1"VGqf oњI3>i?IhY8bJz#] դ n(hRREcQv{':RKPp*mH:Jp̍DIC -ļ QtdFKw*Ձ8;t4ug:^aR|WŸ\nF9_$G:!^Ah_,$ 1 (Z}ed4E (67k#FW F9ت1c PQwTЇxCMgbq JIT:Ѧ#OfL3uqyn:]kO gC'Бe[*ńƹ~ŃKJ3]=,1ūpESՇdʇ"?V1ELYV|p*kZ5.&D=Z匩MIN%sJNW[yjIf5.ֻZRaO2)Չݸ{)e@ R] 3i9RmgAUY8ecqJP*"DeZ1&8t>&~uzJooR=G;= !DžLs]gO|ܼ4n&p,i*vq9#m\}C)߻> ’C;fN`||aEN.AcP(Q:c٤Oh!ā;iZbΖtΡpDSi@8"cX[]):Cr]iTw նM@Ц"o5 hV#N.=q7jr@ru#}|g_+v0Cě\z[P6I?Gi+Kw/әWNLz1?@\euߥJZ-1V(LjU,˚ۀw8s@z ( W|Uddmj`qp(.ד9'O5ƍ>4i\ZC~o$E".gp]/{Ž eZO<P pWh s ,=[@f.7Il17VM'1;!BVg a4}K45w t :݊+*a޶n<97W1uTOKT }#YilFp HΒϢ.R7Eɷ|W p#ll?9'$i)%^a%n);=i_NKd*N+[$nK_>q'Vn0-Rwң =\yF:n +/VTD1TΈƻL8'z(mdz;vwﮃqӻVq!J61quU,ċe%h`eG2ߍr(BrVxEP$_k Ǥ'˖+'ImpzvNl-A}KG^Lߊk\N\=kBkg8Z8K*dxsUB[I}+uK8DHNB_P+v|6Ke xl14J_ ~Yo1B#U8NJÓced,n2DdTݠXS0W\`NBk|`Xt*v"&u|&ܢM'g]5z&Fؠj $ l o_\w}~c$2`4y)iM<.Kb֠#Vmg9R4_ʘHeUoX׸H;="}#-ezOBQCXEW2k&qlllW@2[X{FN=ldX-O$Q_̉r;S*DCZE:_@#g5SԷ ׎64O@d2e8MuwDטJn Y_(hejB\=R0u}ϐbNgt̶x?B(C9G]I#>7c֊\a؝ 8(StYj9Wg.Ծȿp̥mH4mleS({O&2oRamV;՜Cm513LSJ4SbK CZa\W5>0ʭW%_N[=HHk0bwH$CvZcqDTDfuT>/}7F,:_y2ۻf25xqV2/ZhH;ٛw|}VyOcs}+pֻ~hZb0CC4{RQ@z|I l&Q^||3Ƨg7OsVt>)֑!hzPa+2}b ϞS"wz4n [ҶZ ;% ;RKGBh6fƂ>K8t.m\ ^YiRĤ]RR뺲%E}ZJcsTcԁ }S)f Ϊt`O̧aXz^{;,xdV4;c/@'-^;Ͱ&gN|9"2y.ΊE3r,9pOMײA,X8,*wJC yn`wX%c(kme1k/2
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1