Adcult USA - James B. Twitchell

We see them in flashing kaleidoscopes of colour and sound on television, splashes of neon on billboards, on glossy spreads in newspapers and magazines. We hear the peppy jingles on the radio. We even find them being sneaked past us as "underwriting" on public television and radio. Advertising is like a song Americans can't get out of their heads.;In the United States, the average adult sees and hears more than 28 hours of television per week (which translates into forty school days per year), will spend years of their lives watching commercials.;This is an exploration of the culture created when advertising becomes not just a central institution, but the central institution. The author takes readers into the little-explored world of Madison Avenue in the effort to explain how "A few words from our sponsor" became a torrent.;Many cultural critics spend a great deal of time grousing about the general decline in "basic" knowledge, and advertising, deemed "cultural garbage", usually takes much of the blame. Only a few generations ago, these pundits claim, any half-wit could quote from "The Canterbury Tales" at a cocktail party. Today, a fair percentage of high school graduates would probably have to ask who Chaucer is, but the vast majority know what you're talking about when you ask which team won the Bud Bowl last year. Indeed, advertising has become a Western canon all of its own.;It is not a bitter rant about how low our society has sunk when we recognize a Burger King jingle more readily than Beethoven's Fifth. As Twitchell points out, the hard truth of the matter is that we like to be advertised to. Why else, for instance, would teenagers buy posters promoting basketball sneakers or beer?