The Age of Persuasion - Terry O'Reilly & Mike Tennant

If you are a fan of the Pirate Toronto/CBC Radio program “The Age of Persuasion”, I can pretty much guarantee that you will enjoy this book immensely. Whenever I listen to the half hour radio program, I am always left wanting to hear more of these tales from the trenches of the advertising world. In the book of the same name, O’Reilly and Tennant at last have the freedom to expound upon some of the fascinating concepts that they barely have time to touch upon on radio.

I bought this book following a reading that O’Reilly headlined in Calgary last month. During the reading, we were all captivated by his premise that advertising has permeated daily life and insinuated itself into our psyches. In fact, advertising is so widespread that its effectiveness is being drowned out by the very clutter that it is creating. Ads are so ubiquitous, appearing everywhere from the insides of golf holes to the roofs of cabs, that they are in danger of becoming invisible. And in an industry which must remain fresh and surprising to be effective, this has led to increasingly inventive ways to get our attention, such as guerrilla marketing. Advertising is the only industry, O’Reilly surmises, that simultaneously creates the problem as it tries to solve it.

The Age of Persuasion is a fascinating study of both the sociology and the psychology behind the science of advertising. The book explores the history of advertising through the ages, the contract that advertisers have with their target audience, and some of the compelling stories of how branding has changed not only loyalties, but language itself.

This is a very compelling book, a highly enjoyable read, and one that will have you shaking your head and exclaiming “really!”