✍ Scribed by Othmer, James P
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The life of an advertising executive couldn't be further from the glamorous world of Mad Men, according to this entertaining, albeit meandering, memoir. After a giddy beginning banging out copy for a small ad agency, Othmer, a longtime creative director and copywriter, worked his way to the top in 2000 only to discover that his traditional agency was being abandoned in favor of forward-thinking brand stewards who wanted hip new ideas from smaller shops well-versed in new media and digital marketing. Fascinated by groundbreaking interactive campaigns like the 2007 Nine Inch Nails Internet Easter egg hunt and Burger King's Subservient Chicken gag, he found his love for advertising reinvigorated, and his book is an effort to better understand the inescapable industry's influence on culture. Though there's no particular conclusion drawn, and the story itself wanders, the humor and genuine excitement that shine through may keep some media-world readers interested—most tellingly when, at a swanky party full of advertising executives, the author wistfully observes that even real life has begun to feel fake. (Sept.)
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“Great. . . . Raucous. . . . Picks up where Mad Men leaves off.” —_Forbes_
“Entertaining and thought-provoking. . . . [Othmer’s] sharp voice helps cut through the hype, and underscores how the distinction between entertainment and advertising is vanishing more quickly than anyone imagines.” —“Smart Money,” WSJ.com
“[A] hilarious chronicle of the absurd world of Madison Avenue.” —_The Free Lance Star_
“An engrossing tour of a revolution that is unlikely to be televised. . . . Othmer wields his pen like a stiletto.” —CNN/Money.com
“An enjoyable and profound read. . . . It resonates with everything we love about this industry, everything we hate, everything that keeps us working in it, everything that makes us want to leave and everything that makes us believe in what could still be possible. . . . Buy it now.” —_Advertising Age_
“Othmer’s story has dual appeal—as a portrait of a changing industry and a template for readers torn between a drive for professional success and a pull toward human happiness. . . . A great resource for anyone whose professional life makes them want to sing the from theme song from Alfie.” —_The Huffington Post_
“One of the pop culture must-reads of the year.” —LargeHeartedBoy.com
“A memoir about selling and selling out in a world Don Draper and his Mad Men colleagues never could have envisioned. . . . As juicy a read as the chicken KFC hired (Othmer) to promote.” —_Louisville Courier Journal_
“Truth in advertising comes through in this revealing tome.” —MediaBistro.com
“Othmer is a witty and charming tour guide who chats self-deprecatingly about his own Adland epiphanies and humiliations while leading...
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### From Publishers Weekly The life of an advertising executive couldn't be further from the glamorous world of *Mad Men*, according to this entertaining, albeit meandering, memoir. After a giddy beginning banging out copy for a small ad agency, Othmer, a longtime creative director and copywriter,