Super Sales on Super Heroes


Book Description

In a world full of super powers, Felix had a pretty crappy one.After learning to harness his ability to modify any item he owns, he now runs a corporation that is rapidly expanding.Legion.After tangling with the local Heroes guild they've finally settled into a semblance of stability.Sounds great on paper. Run your company, make money, be your own boss, settle down.Except that with running a business, comes an inordinate amount of responsibilities.Like making sure everything keeps running and your people are paid.Worrying about the longevity of his company, Felix begins to expand into other cities.So they've packed up the car, put in all the requisite forms, gotten the approvals, and set out to start Legion up in a new city.The problem though is the local government had no idea who they were selling permits to. Approving forms for.To Felix and Legion.And now they're about to find out.




The Atlantic Monthly


Book Description




The King of Madison Avenue


Book Description

From the former CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, the first biography of advertising maverick David Ogilvy Famous for his colorful personality and formidable intellect, David Ogilvy left an indelible mark on the advertising world, transforming it into a dynamic industry full of passionate, creative individuals. This first-ever biography traces Ogilvy's remarkable life, from his short-lived college education and undercover work during World War II to his many successful years in New York advertising. Ogilvy's fascinating life and career make for an intriguing study from both a biographical and a business standpoint. The King of Madison Avenue is based on a wealth of material from decades of working alongside the advertising giant, including a large collection of photos, memos, recordings, notes, and extensive archives of Ogilvy's personal papers. The book describes the creation of some of history's most famous advertising campaigns, such as: * "The man in the Hathaway shirt" with his aristocratic eye patch * "The man from Schweppes is here" with Commander Whitehead, the elegant bearded Brit, introducing tonic water (and "Schweppervesence") to the U.S. * Perhaps the most famous automobile headline of all time--"At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock." * "Pablo Casals is coming home--to Puerto Rico." Ogilvy said this campaign, which helped change the image of a country, was his proudest achievement. * And his greatest (if less recognized) sales success--"DOVE creams your skin while you wash." Roman also carries Ogilvy's message into the present day, showing the contemporary relevance of the bottom-line focus for which his business ventures are remembered, and how this approach is still key for professionals in the modern advertising world.




A Government by the People


Book Description

Between 1898 and 1918, many American states introduced the initiative, referendum, and recall--known collectively as direct democracy. Most interpreters have seen the motives for these reform measures as purely political, but Thomas Goebel demonstrates that the call for direct democracy was deeply rooted in antimonopoly sentiment. Frustrated with the governmental corruption and favoritism that facilitated the rise of monopolies, advocates of direct democracy aimed to check the influence of legislative bodies and directly empower the people to pass laws and abolish trusts. But direct democracy failed to achieve its promises: corporations and trusts continued to flourish, voter turnout rates did not increase, and interest groups grew stronger. By the 1930s, it was clear that direct democracy favored large organizations with the financial and organizational resources to fund increasingly expensive campaigns. Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of direct democracy, particularly in California, where ballot questions and propositions have addressed such volatile issues as gay rights and affirmative action. In this context, Goebel's analysis of direct democracy's history, evolution, and ultimate unsuitability as a grassroots tool is particularly timely.




The Father of Spin


Book Description

Bernays, a pioneering practitioner of public relations, zestfully ballyhooed his clients with stunts, cultivation of the press, and solicited endorsements. This judicious book balances appreciation for Bernays' inventiveness with a sober understanding of its consequences. Two 8-page photo inserts.




Rethinking the Rise and Fall of Apartheid


Book Description

Providing a much-needed antidote to recent revisionist attempts to 'rehabilitate' apartheid, this major new text by a leading authority offers a considered and substantive reassessment of the nature, endurance and significance of apartheid in South Africa as well as the reasons for its dramatic collapse. Paying particular attention to the international dimension as well as the domestic, the author assesses the impact of anti-apartheid protest, of changing attitudes of Western governments to the apartheid regime and the evolution of South African government policies to the outside world.




Only Yesterday


Book Description

A social history of the United States during the "roaring twenties." Examines American individualism and the decade that they knew Mah Jong and Mencken, Couéism and Coolidge, Listerine and Lindbergh, as well as Capone, Ford, Babe Ruth, the Teapot Dome, and bathtub gin.




A Great Idea at the Time


Book Description

Today the classics of the western canon, written by the proverbial ''dead white men,'' are cannon fodder in the culture wars. But in the 1950s and 1960s, they were a pop culture phenomenon. The Great Books of Western Civilization, fifty-four volumes chosen by intellectuals at the University of Chicago, began as an educational movement, and evolved into a successful marketing idea. Why did a million American households buy books by Hippocrates and Nicomachus from door-to-door salesmen? And how and why did the great books fall out of fashion? In A Great Idea at the Time Alex Beam explores the Great Books mania, in an entertaining and strangely poignant portrait of American popular culture on the threshold of the television age. Populated with memorable characters, A Great Idea at the Time will leave readers asking themselves: Have I read Lucretius's De Rerum Natura lately? If not, why not?




The Business of Trading in Stocks


Book Description

If speculation were an exact science, one would simply have to analyze a situation, select the appropriate rule, and buy or sell accordingly. But the factors that influence prices are infinite in number and character, as well as in their effect upon the market; and the speculator's forecasts of the probable outcome are nothing more than composite products of his own emotional equipment, his theoretical knowledge of the principles involved, and that reservoir of accumulated memories called "Experience."-from "Intuition"The corporate arena in the United States has changed tremendously since the early years of the Great Depression, but the basics of buying, selling, and making-and losing-money in the stock market have remained the same. This eighth edition of a classic of stock speculation was assembled from articles appearing in The Magazine of Wall Street in 1926 and 1927 and updated in 1933, just as new market rules and regulations were coming into play to prevent Black Friday from occurring again.With a straightforward tone and solid insight, this work, still recommended as must reading for players in the market, covers: the principles and techniques of manipulation tape reading the law of averages charts and mechanical systems fundamentals what to buy, and when rights, arbitrage, and puts and calls and more.JOHN DURAND also wrote How to Secure Continuous Security Profits in Modern Markets (1929). A. T. MILLER is also the author of Principles of Successful Speculation (1931).




A Nation of Small Shareholders


Book Description

The little-known story of Wall Street’s effort to court individual investors during the Cold War in order to build a bulwark against communism. Immediately after the frightening Great Crash of 1929, many Americans swore they would never—or never again—become involved in the stock market. Yet hordes of Americans eventually did come to embrace equity investing, to an extent actually far greater than the level of popular involvement in the market during the Roaring Twenties. A Nation of Small Shareholders explores how marketers at the New York Stock Exchange during the mid-twentieth century deliberately cultivated new individual shareholders. Janice M. Traflet examines the energy with which NYSE leaders tried to expand the country’s retail investor base, particularly as the Cold War emerged and then intensified. From the early 1950s until the 1970s, Exchange executives engaged in an ambitious and sometimes controversial marketing program known as “Own Your Share of America,” which aimed to broaden the country’s shareholder base. The architects of the marketing program ardently believed that widespread share ownership would strengthen “democratic capitalism”—which, in turn, would serve as an effective barrier to the potential allure of communism here in the United States. Based on extensive primary source research, A Nation of Small Shareholders illustrates the missionary zeal with which Big Board leaders during the Cold War endeavored to convince factions within the Exchange, as well as the public, of the practical and ideological importance of building a true shareholder nation.