tanyajanke's Full Review: Paul Rutherford - The New Icons?: The Art of Telev...
I should begin by admitting that The New Icons? was written by an old professor of mine, Paul Rutherford, from the University of Toronto. If you think this predisposes me to giving an overly generous review, though, I should also admit that I got a pretty low mark in his History of Advertising course. So it all evens out.
It was not until I came across a dog-eared copy of this book in a small public library that I realized it was the sort of book that might appeal to many. I suppose I underestimated the appeal that a book on television advertising has to the masses, but we all own TVs and therefore all have opinions relating to commercials. In fact, there is a quote on the cover suggesting that The New Icons? is a must-read for anyone with a TV. The quote is from Jerry Goodis, an infamous former ad exec who both worked in and criticized the advertising industry.
It is no surprise, then, that Rutherford's book has nothing but good things to say regarding Goodis' work, upon which the book focuses a good deal of attention. The New Icons? goes all the way back to the beginning of television advertising in the 1950's and charts the progression of TV commercials into the early 90's, when this book was written. It provides a thorough examination of TV advertising, with a particular focus on Canadian ads, which I as a Canadian found refreshing. The book also covers international ads from the States, Europe, Japan and South America. One of the book's weaknesses, I found, is that it speaks almost exclusively of award-winning commercials. Most of the commercials we see on TV do not win awards and are far from inspired and I would have been interested in reading about those as well.
The tone of The New Icons? is far from academic, even though it is a thorough and insightful study. Rutherford's use of language is jovial and he even uses input from his students. I'm not one of them, though. I think Goodis was right in recommending The New Icons? to anyone with a TV. It's an easy read but spoils the reader with trivia surrounding TV commercials. Read this book and you'll sound smarter than your friends when you're commenting on pop culture.
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