Word: packards
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...shock is delivered by other means than mere relation of information. One of Packard's favorite stylistic devices is to create an Orwellian world by using "in the 1950's" when describing technique. This is similar to the history written...
...peculiar fascination and shock of this book lie in the fact that it describes the irrational motivations of everyday acts--purchasing and consumption. This is not an account of the mentally ill; it applies to everyone reading the book. The shock for Mr. Packard, however, seems to be the discovery that human beings are not always rational, hardly a very amazing discovery...
...Packard's major troubles is that he is a journalist, not a social scientist, and cannot evaluate the information he examines. Often, he is overly credulous in believing the effectiveness of the newly discovered techniques and in the incomplete explanations of behavior offered by those engaged in "motivational research." In his desire to sermonize, Packard does not really realize the good done by the motivational research expert, both in finding what people really need and also in broadening knowledge about human behavior...
...despite all his limitations, Packard has written a fascinating book which raises some valid moral questions. His chapter headings--"The Built-In Seual Overtone,"--"Back to the Breast, and Beyond," Class and Caste in the Sales-room," "Selling Symbols to Upward Strivers," and "The Packaged Soul" indicate the nature of his subject matter. His description of the techniques used to sell Mrs. Middle Majority, "the darling of the advertiser," and those used to revive the cigarette holder, instant coffee, tea, margarine, and prune industries are intensely interesting...
...Packard's most interesting chapters is that on the motivation research techniques in politics. He examines the 1956 campaign in which the Republicans used these modern techniques much more than their rivals, probably because they had more money...