Synopses & Reviews
We're living in the Age of Persuasion. Leaders and organizations of all kinds--public and private, large and small--fulfill their missions only by competing in the marketplace of images and messages. To win in that marketplace, they need advertising. This has been true since the advent of mass media, from mass-circulation magazines and radio through the age of television and the Internet.
Yet even as they use advertising to capture consumers' imaginations and build their brands, few people know of the ingenious and tormented man who built the modern advertising industry and shaped a new consumer sensibility as the twentieth century unfolded: Albert D. Lasker.
Drawing on a recently uncovered trove of Lasker's papers, Jeffrey Cruikshank and Arthur Schultz have written a fascinating biography of one of the past century's most influential, intriguing, troubled, and instructive figures. Lasker's creative and powerful use of "reason-why" advertising to inject ideas and arguments into ad campaigns had a profound impact on modern advertising, foreshadowing the consumer-centered "unique selling proposition" approach that dominates the industry today. His tactics helped launch or revitalize companies and brands that remain household names--including Palmolive, Goodyear, and Quaker Oats.
As Lasker rose in prominence, he went beyond consumer products to apply his brilliance to presidential politics, government service, and professional sports, changing the game wherever he went, and building a vast fortune along the way. But his intensity had a price--he was felled by mental breakdowns throughout his life. This book also tells the story of how he fought back with determination and with support from family and friends in an age when lack of effective treatment doomed most mentally ill people.
The Man Who Sold America is a riveting account of a man larger than life, who shaped not only an industry but also a century.
Review
a must-read for anyone in advertising” - Advertising Age
excellent biography” - Advertising Age
rich and compelling” Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Man Who Sold America pulls back the curtain and shows us a remarkable life spent shaping much of the world we know today.” - The Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2010
"Writer Cruikshank
and former advertising agency head Schultz help ensure, through copious research and easy-to-read prose, that Lasker will remain a critical linchpin in the U.S. that advertising helped build." - Booklist, August 16, 2010
The Man Who Sold America is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of one of the most colorful, influential, and enigmatic Americans of the last hundred years: a human dynamo who left signature marks on the worlds of advertising, political campaigning, professional sports, and philanthropy. This book is indispensable to understanding how the world we live in came to be.” - Thomas K. McCraw, Pulitzer Prizewinning historian and author, Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction
Cruikshank and Schultz provide vivid details of Albert Laskers revolutionary advertising and public relations career, launching and revitalizing beloved American brands. The Man Who Sold America tells a fascinating story, and reveals valuable lessons and insights for anyone interested in communications and the media.” - Carol Cone, Founder, Cone Inc., and Managing Director, Edelman
How did one man boost the success of orange juice, toothpaste, Bob Hope, the American Cancer Society, Warren G. Harding, Kotex, Kleenex, and Planned Parenthood? How did he do it in the face of anti-Semitism and a lifelong struggle with mental illness? Read this remarkable book about the astounding Albert Lasker and find out." - William H. Draper III, venture capitalist and philanthropist
A man driven by a thousand devils, the hyperactive Albert Lasker achieved both exceptional success and enduring significancesuccess in redefining the field of advertising and significance in his innovative and leveraged philanthropy. This engaging book brilliantly captures his dramatic story in a manner that simultaneously entertains and educates.” - Thomas J. Tierney, Chairman, The Bridgespan Group
Imagine a man who combines the advertising gifts of a David Ogilvy, the political instincts of a Rahm Emanuel, and the lifestyle of a Jay Gatsby. Albert Lasker was just such a figure, though youve probably never heard of him. Cruikshank and Schultz bring to life this unduly neglected character and show how he helped shape the media-besotted world we live in today.” - Walter Kiechel, author, The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World
A brilliant businessman and brand builder, political gadfly, art enthusiast, Chicago Cubs co-owner, generous philanthropist, and friend and confidante to some of the early twentieth centurys sharpest and most creative minds, Albert Lasker was a charismatic, complex, sometimes tortured soul. Cruikshank and Schultz have skillfully chronicled his life with color and energy. A fascinating read.” - Howard Draft, executive chairman, Draftfcb
goes a long way to reintroducing Lasker as an industry trailblazer.” - HBS Bulletin
they have pulled back the drapes to reveal a rich life that profoundly shaped the American way of life in the 20th century.” - HBS Bulletin
Synopsis
We live in an age of persuasion. Leaders and institutions of every kind--public and private, large and small--must compete in the marketplace of images and messages. This has been true since the advent of mass media, from broad circulation magazines and radio through the age of television and the internet.
Yet there have been very few true geniuses at the art of mass persuasion in the last century. In public relations, Edward Bernays comes to mind. In advertising, most Hall-of-Famers--J. Walter Thomson, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach, Bruce Barton, Ray Rubicam, and others--point to one individual as the "father" of modern advertising: Albert D. Lasker.
And yet Lasker--unlike Bernays, Thomson, Ogilvy, and the others--remains an enigma. Now, Jeffrey Cruikshank and Arthur Schultz, having uncovered a treasure trove of Lasker's papers, have written a fascinating and revealing biography of one of the 20th century's most powerful, intriguing, and instructive figures. It is no exaggeration to say that Lasker created modern advertising. He was the first influential proponent of "reason why" advertising, a consumer-centered approach that skillfully melded form and content and a precursor to the "unique selling proposition" approach that today dominates the industry. More than that, he was a prominent political figure, champion of civil rights, man of extreme wealth and hobnobber with kings and maharajahs, as well as with the likes of Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt. He was also a deeply troubled man, who suffered mental collapses throughout his adult life, though was able fight through and continue his amazing creative and productive activities into later life.
This is the story of a man who shaped an industry, and in many ways, shaped a century.
About the Author
Jeffrey L. Cruikshank is an author or coauthor of many books, including Shaping the Waves: A History of Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School. Arthur W. Schultz is a veteran ad agency executive who once headed Foote Cone and Belding, the successor agency to Albert Lasker's Lord and Thomas.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Orator and the Entrepreneur
Chapter 2: The Galveston Hothouse
Chapter 3: Success in Chicago
Chapter 4: Salesmanship in Print
Chapter 5: Growing Up, Breaking Down
Chapter 6: The Greatest Copywriter
Chapter 7: Orange Juice and Raisin Bread
Chapter 8: Fighting for Leo Frank
Chapter 9: Into the Tomato Business
Chapter 10: Saving Baseball from Itself
Chapter 11: Venturing into Politics
Chapter 12: Electing a President
Chapter 13: The Damnedest Job in the World
Chapter 14: A Family Interlude
Chapter 15: A Defeat and Two Victories
Chapter 16: Selling the Unmentionable, and More
Chapter 17: Retrenching and Reshaping
Chapter 18: Selling and Unselling California
Chapter 19: The Downward Spiral
Chapter 20: Changing a Life
Chapter 21: Finding Peace
Chapter 22: The Lasker Legacy
A Note on Primary Sources
Notes
About the Author