How does advertising work? Does it have to attract conscious attention in order to transmit a -Unique Selling Proposition-? Or does it insinuate emotional associations into the subconscious mind? Or is it just about being famous... or maybe something else? In Paul Feldwick-s radical new view, all theories of how advertising works have their uses - and all are dangerous if they are taken too literally as the truth. The Anatomy of Humbug deftly and entertainingly picks apart the historical roots of our common - and often contradictory - beliefs about advertising, in order to create space for a more flexible, creative and effective approach to this fascinating and complex field of human communication. Drawing on insights ranging from the nineteenth-century showman P.T. Barnum to the twentieth-century communications theorist Paul Watzlawick, as well as influential admen such as Bernbach, Reeves and Ogilvy, Feldwick argues that the advertising industry will only be able to deal with increas
