- ISBN13: 9780684866000
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
“When was the last time you felt this comfortable in a relationship?”
— An ad for sneakers “You can love it without getting your heart broken.”
— An ad for a car “Until I find a real man, I’ll settle for a real smoke.”
— A woman in a cigarette ad Many advertisements these days make us feel as if we have an intimate, even passionate relationship with a product. But as Jean Kilbourne points out in this fascinating and shocking exposé, the … More >>
Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel
Jean Kilbourne has a great premise for “Can’t Buy My Love”: that corporations and the media use advertising to manipulate our emotions. And, throughout the book, she makes several insightful points about this phenomenon. However, Kilbourne’s personal agenda, lack of self-awareness, humorless writing, and faulty interpretations quickly negate any good this book could do.
Kilbourne obviously has personal issues with cigarettes, alcohol, and sex/relationships. Unfortunately, she allows her subjectivity to color her writing, making “Can’t Buy My Love” less thoughtful analysis and more personal diatribe. Kilbourne comes across as bitter, vindictive, and–most importantly in a book of this type–more full of opinions than of facts and research.
Many of Kilbourne’s interpretations of various advertisements are faulty; she likes to “reach” with her interpretations, and in several cases, it’s obvious that she has completely misread. Even more damaging to her case, Kilbourne rarely supports her own interpretations with any sources or even with any true commentary. Rather, she shows a picture of an ad and offers only a paragraph or two of her own interpretation before moving on. The book often feels unorganized and disconnected, especially when Kilbourne inserts a rant that is only vaguely related to the ads she’s discussing–or even to advertising itself.
What really destroys the book, in my opinion, is Kilbourne’s almost complete lack of humor. She doesn’t recognize obvious humor or satire in certain advertisements, and she rarely lightens her vitriolic tone. She comes across as bitter, angry, and a little insane.
I would not recommend this book to anyone who wants an academic look at how advertising affects our emotions and behavior. Rather, you should read Stephen Kline’s “Social Communication in Advertising: Persons, Products, and Images of Well-Being” or Judith Williamson’s “Decoding Advertisements.”
Rating: 1 / 5
The book I have just finished reading is Can’t Buy my Love by Jean Kilbourne. I think it’s a well-written book. She really breaks down the different styles of advertising and the way each person is affected.
Ms. Kilbourne also talks about how some ads influence men and women. Here is an example from the book its woman talking she dressed very sexy and says, “Until I find a real man, I’ll settle for a real smoke”. This is just one of the many different ways of advertising.
If you are looking for an informative book that will teach you about advertising. I believe this is the book you have been looking for. So tell a friend about it!!
Rating: 3 / 5
Mini- Review
In review of the book I’m reading Can’t Buy My Love is about advertising. It doesn’t discriminate women as much as I thought it would. It discriminates the advertising world. Jean Kilbourne, (the author) talks about how advertising influences all different kinds of people: blacks, whites, males, females, adults, and children.
Jean Kilbourne really goes in depth with the way she portrays the advertising world. People spend millions of dollars trying to get their commercials on T.V. ” You can love it without getting your heart broken.” Some company probably paid a lot of money just to get that quote on T.V., or in a magazine.
This is the only book I’ve read in a long time, I really enjoyed it.
Can’t Buy My Love is an informative book about the advertising world.
Rating: 4 / 5
OK, so I have not read the book. However, I listened to an interview with her on NPR yesterday. Anyway, what really caught my attention and what I wanted to share with you was at the end of the interview she was asked what her idea of a beautiful child is. There wasn’t a transcript available on the web site, but they did have audio, so I transcribed it the best that I could. Here is her answer:
“A child who’s radiant, who’s happy, who’s civilized but not repressed, who’s curious and full of a sense of wonder and adventure, who’s confident, loves to engage in conversation and activities and basically feels that her body is powerful and wonderful and can do great things for her, and that her mind opens her up to endless possibilities.”
Now that does sound beautiful!
Rating: 5 / 5
After a great start, this book quickly sinks into a pop culture excerise that implements the very methods the author hopes to expose. Ads after ad is thrown onto the stage, summed up in fifty words or less, and subsequently denounced as “harmful” to society. The reasons for this pronouncement vary wildly and are almost never backed by supporting evidence. What we get are impressions, not reasoned thought.
This is unfortunate because advertising is an arena that deserves some investigation. Unfortunately, you won’t find that here. Instead, you have something almost as bombastic as the alcohol ads the author attacks. There are no interviews with the artists, photographers, script writers, producers, or manufacturers of the ads that are reviewed, nor of the products they represent. There is no investigation into the market research behind the ads. There is virtually NO evidence allowed except for the author’s own assumptions.
It also becomes apparant about half way through the book that the author has more at issue with the products being advertised than the advertising itself. Close to 1/3 of the book is spent exploring just cigarette and alcohol ads. The author’s attitude about these products borders on abolitionism, the main thrust of her argument being not that that advertising is harmful so much as that the products advertised are inherently diabolical and lead to self destruction. Whatever one may think about these products, this is absolutely not the place for this discussion.
Not everything about this book is bad. The opening chapter, in which it is explained that the mass media exists for the purpose of fueling advertising, is excellent. Had the author stuck to that topic, I think this book would have been grand.
Rating: 2 / 5