Where the suckers moon : the life and death of an advertising campaign

For all the right reasons. "Cars that can." "What to Drive." "The perfect Car for an Imperfect World." Only one of these slogans would be chosen by Subaru of America to sell its cars in the recession year of 1991. As six advertising agencies scrambled for the account and the winner tried to churn out the Big Idea that would install Subaru in the collective national unconscious, Randall Rothenberg was there, observing every nuance of the chaos, comedy, creativity, and egotism that made up an ad campaign. One can read Rothenberg's bok as the behind-the-scenes chronicle of the brief and very troubled marriage between a beleaguered automobile company and Wieden & Kennedy, an aggressively hip ad agency whose creative director despised cars. One can read it as a history of advertising's journey from the conventionally upbeat slogan "Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways" to the supercool nineties minimalism of "Bo Knows." Either way, __Where the Suckers Moon__ is a face-paced, insightful, and occasionally appalling look at an industry whose obsession with image has affected our entireculture "For all the right reasons." "Cars that can." "What to Drive." "The perfect Car for an Imperfect World." Only one of these slogans would be chosen by Subaru of America to sell its cars in the recession year of 1991. As six advertising agencies scrambled for the account and the winner tried to churn out the Big Idea that would install Subaru in the collective national unconscious, Randall Rothenberg was there, observing every nuance of the chaos, comedy, creativity, and egotism that made up an ad campaign. One can read Rothenberg's book as the behind-the-scenes chronicle of the brief and very troubled marriage between a beleaguered automobile company and Wieden & Kennedy, an aggressively hip ad agency whose creative director despised cars. One can read it as a history of advertising's journey from the conventionally upbeat slogan "Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways" to the supercool nineties minimalism of "Bo Knows." Either way, Where the Suckers Moon is a face-paced, insightful, and occasionally appalling look at an industry whose obsession with image has affected our entireculture. From the moment Subaru of America - in an effort to counter flagging car sales - set out to select a new agency, throwing its $75 million account open to competition, Randall Rothenberg, formerly advertising columnist of the New York Times, was there. Out of his unprecedented access to the car company and the agency it ultimately chose - Wieden & Kennedy - Rothenberg brilliantly details the people, passions, politics and processes of advertising. He takes us into a world composed equally of chaos and comedy, terror and triumph, a world where sober M.B.A.'s clash with Hollywood egos, creative mavericks with research pundits - all of them in pursuit of the Holy Grail: an image that will live as long as Volkswagen's "Lemon" ad, a slogan as memorable as "Please don't squeeze the Charmin."

Rothenberg chronicles the brief, turbulent marriage between a recession-plagued auto company and an aggressively hip ad agency (whose creative director despised cars), capturing both the ad world's tantalizing gossip and the broader significance of its creations. "Simply the best book about advertising I have ever read."—Neil Postman (Technopoly).

Rothenberg chronicles the brief, turbulent marriage between a recession-plagued auto company and an aggressively hip ad agency (whose creative director despised cars), capturing both the ad world's tantalizing gossip and the broader significance of its creations. "Simply the best book about advertising I have ever read."--Neil Postman (Technopoly).

In a narrative alive with authenticity and genuine color, Rothenberg takes us inside Subaru - the darling of Wall Street in the early eighties but ravaged in the recession of the early nineties. He enters as well the inner sanctums of the six major agencies that competed to top Subaru's once-successful slogan, "Inexpensive, and built to stay that way." He watches and listens as the Subaru executives argue about the proposals submitted. And once the winning agency is chosen, he describes every crucial twist and turn of its frenetic, all-out efforts to invent and then recharge a campaign - TV commercials, print ads, slogans - that will win the approval of Subaru executives and disgruntled car dealers AT 7:30 A.M., Christopher Wackman was a lonely presence on Madison Avenue.