Sign Wars or Outcomes and Incomes

Sign Wars: The Cluttered Landscape of Advertising

Author: Robert Goldman

Television has become so saturated with commercials that it is difficult at times to tell the different images apart, much less remember or care about them. But, on closer look, television commercials can tell us a great deal about the interplay of market forces, contemporary culture,and corporate politics. This book views contemporary ad culture as an ever-accelerating war of meaning. The authors show how corporate symbols or signs vie for attention-span and market share by appropriating and quickly abandoning diverse elements of culture to differentiate products that may be in themselves virtually indistinguishable. The resulting "sign wars" are both a cause and a consequence of a media culture that is cynical and jaded, but striving for authenticity.

Including more than 100 illustrations and numerous examples from recent campaigns, this book provides a critical review of the culture of advertising, exposes the contradictions that stem from turning culture into a commodity, and illuminates the impact of television commercials on the way we see and understand the world around us.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction: Advertising in the Age of Accelerated Meaning	1
1	Sign Wars	20
2	Advertising in the Age of Hypersignification	55
3	Yo! Hailing the Alienated Spectator	83
4	The Flip Side of Jadedness: Memory and a Sense of Place	115
5	Authenticity in the Age of the Poseur	141
6	Green Marketing and the Commodity Self	187
7	The Corporate Politics of Sign Values	216
	Conclusion: Sneakerization and Hyperculture	256
	Notes	275
	Bibliography	295
	Index	311

New interesting textbook: Hardcore or Memory Prescription

Outcomes and Incomes

Author: Paul W Clement

Outlining a highly flexible system based on the author's extensive experience in clinincal practice, the book and CD-ROM feature more than 25 ready-to-use, repro-ducible measures. Step-by-step guidelines show clinicians how to use outcomes evaluation to improve and market their services and nourish the growth of their practice.

Booknews

A book/CD-ROM package presenting tools therapists need to incorporate outcomes measurement into everyday clinical work. Part I presents recommendations for measuring outcomes, and Part II presents specific outcome measures, most of which readers may copy directly. Step-by- step guidelines show how to use outcomes evaluation to improve and market services. Features some 25 reproducible checklists and forms and suggestions for using a range of commercially available measures, as well as charts and statistical conversion tables. The CD-ROM contains reproducible forms. The author has maintained a private psychotherapy practice for 33 years. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)