The fiftieth anniversary edition of a seminal work (released as an anniversary edition in September of 2007) on how we, as a nation of consumers, are persuaded to "buy products," including political candidates.

The Republicans, coming from the world of corporate marketing, have been much better at "branding" their "products" than the Democrats. Look at what they did with an empty vessel like George W. Bush.

Vance Packard understood the power of advertising, marketing and branding at a time when it was reaching a new zenith with the mass influence of television.

From Ig Publishing, the publisher:

Originally published in 1957, and now back in print with a new introduction by Mark Crispin Miller, The Hidden Persuaders is Vance Packard's pioneering work exploring the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including subliminal tactics, by advertisers to secretly manipulate mass desire for consumer goods and products.

Chronicling the many methods that advertisers use in their quest to manipulate the thoughts and actions of consumers, The Hidden Persuaders exposes how advertising floods our consciousness with images and symbols, operating as a mind-control operation to get us to buy the products it produces. The book also discusses advertising in politics, predicting the way image and personality would rapidly come to overshadow real issues in the televised age.

Having sold over one million copies in its original printing, The Hidden Persuaders was the first book to expose how advertising and media attempts to control our thoughts and desires, and is more relevant than ever in today's super-saturated media world.