Twenty Ads That Shook the World

The Century’s Most Groundbreaking Advertising and How It Changed Us All

by James Twitchell

Crown, 272 pp., $25

This book’s title is a bit misleading, since, rather than focusing on 20 individual ads, it actually profiles influential ad campaigns. Would you believe that the cherubic Santa Claus character we take for granted was derived not from folklore, but from 1920s Coca-Cola ads? Twenty Ads That Shook the World lays out how — just before Coke perfected its secret St. Nick formula — most Santas wore drab robes and were more severe than the jolly old man who wears Coca-Cola red. Twenty Ads chronologically probes effective, enduring strategies such as commissioning artworks that incorporate the product, (e.g., Absolut vodka), equating celebrity with product (Nike’s Air Jordan campaigns), and unleashing create-your-own consumer anxieties (such as “ring around the collar”). Twenty Ads is an excellent primer for learning more about the strategies that have affected our lives as consumers, often without our realization.

This article appears in August 25 • 2000.

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