A major secret of success

Okay, I guess you guys convinced me - I'll jump in here too!

Well.... It would be a long exercise to type in what's on my bookshelves, but here's what I've been reading lately....

I've been quite "advertising"-focused lately - so I've been collecting (and reading) a whole bunch of ads (both from what's in print, and from the web), and reading books about advertising too....

A book I found in the library is "The 100 Greatest Advertisements" by Julian Lewis Watkins. Not a bad book! The ads only go up to about 1959 though (when the Dover edition was published) - but there are some classics here. Ads like David Ogilvy's Rolls Royce ad ("At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock"), that John Caples piano playing ad ("They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano - But When I Started To Play!-"), and others in here too - plus the stories behind them!

An early Marlboro Man ad is in here - ever wonder how the Marlboro Man came to be? Well, the story goes that filtered cigarettes were considered quite effeminate. So, in order to remove the "stigma" of "effeminate" filters on cigarettes, the ad agency picked the most masculine image they could think of - a cowboy! And lo and behold, the Marlboro Man was born. I wish I knew a more modern version of this book!

I've also recently been reading "The Wizard of Ads" by Roy H. Williams, and leafing through "Marketing Outrageously" by Jon Spoelstra. Still reading through "The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing" by George Silverman, and "Jump Start Your Brain" by Doug Hall.

Richard Feynman has been mentioned a couple of times - his book of anecdotes, "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman" is a great read, and I think everyone would enjoy it (not just physicists)! I pick it and read through his stories from time to time, just for the laughs!

Well, that's what I've been reading recently.... :)

- Dien