(D) CBQ Booknotes—Condensed Reviews

Abstract

48:48 Advertising: What Everyone Needs to Know® by Maria Einstein (New York, NY Oxford University Press, 2017—$74.00, ISBN: 978-0-1-9062588-7 [Hardcover], introduction and conclusion, six sections) confronts the pervasive presence of mediated advertising with data, analysis, and conceptual ideas. With a title accented by a registered trademark icon, this book explains and reviews contemporary advertising practices across varied media, including newspapers, television, gaming apps, YouTube videos and mobile technologies. Framed by a media literacy sensibility, Einstein examines the rising sophistication of consumers concerning advertising, aided by the technology that has given them the choice to avoid it. Then, the author compares this with a concurrent rise in the industry’s subtler, hidden, even deceptive strategies designed to keep ads in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Key chapters included key definitions of the media landscape, conceptual ties between marketing and advertising, and an exploration of why the use of “big data” reigns as a significant factor in the current and future dominance of advertising messages. Einstein, a former advertising and marketing executive, is a professor of Media Studies at Queens College, City University.