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Changing the World Is the Only Fit Work for a Grown Man(Paperback) - 2012 Edition

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An eyewitness account of the life and times of Howard Luck 1960's America's most innovative, influential and irreverent advertising genius.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

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131 people want to read

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Steve Harrison

49 books9 followers

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5 stars
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4 stars
27 (29%)
3 stars
13 (14%)
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
Profile Image for Andy.
172 reviews16 followers
September 4, 2023
I saw Steve Harrison present a film on HLG at a conference six or seven years ago. I think about it all the bloody time.

This book's a must read for anyone interested in the industry. Or in how being a creative in the world of advertising doesn't mean you can't go out and save the damn world.
Profile Image for Mika.
1 review
January 23, 2019
An inspiring story of a creative legend who redefined the industry of advertising and eventually shook the whole nation many times by his creative ideas.
Profile Image for Krišjānis Zviedrāns.
27 reviews7 followers
June 27, 2020
You can either be sad about that he isn't well known or be glad that despite being mostly lonely in his ahead of time thought he achieved so much and made it to this day.
Profile Image for Meda.
10 reviews1 follower
August 24, 2020
For anyone interested in the history of advertising, this book is definitely worth a try. It was both interesting and informative. Highly recommend!
4 reviews
August 5, 2023
Fascinating and engaging read, written by one of the best copywriters in history. Do not miss this!
Profile Image for Rick.
Author 6 books86 followers
May 3, 2013
Howard Gossage seems pretty awesome. I stumbled across him while reading about Marshall Mcluhan, and was intrigued because I used to work in advertising and i hadn't heard of him. I'm also fascinated in environmental issues, and so my interest was doubly piqued when I realized he played such a fundamental early role in the American environmental movement. Wow this sounds like a Yelp review. Why am I writing it in the first person.

Anyhoo, the book is thoroughly researched. In reading it, I learned about Gossage's autobiography, or rather his book of lectures. Perhaps it'd be better to start with that, but this is a quick read, a good overview of an interesting man, living in an interesting city, San Francisco, in interesting times, and interesting people - he was a colleague of Ogilvy and Bernbach, along with a lot of other super fascinating non-ad people. Berkeley radicals. Cyberneticists. Rock stars.
Profile Image for Barbara Maliukaite.
11 reviews7 followers
March 23, 2022
A book about the only sane man in the "Mad Men" era – Howard Gossage. Also known as "The Socrates of San Francisco". Howard was an incredibly inspiring, easily bored and insanely talented advertising innovator and iconoclast. His ideas and thinking were decades ahead of its time, so he’s done everything differently and did it well. This book is worth shelf, but might be a bit more inspiring for people in communications.
Profile Image for Lydia.
32 reviews
May 27, 2013
If only all advertising related books were this well written, then I would definitely be inclined to read more of them.
9 reviews2 followers
August 30, 2013
Very interesting subject matter - role of adman in creating (or rather, pushing to prominence) the green movement particularly fascinating. A little bit ad-geeky though, and not fabulously written.
1,625 reviews
January 25, 2022
Some of the phrases within are extremely helpful. A good book to read for those interested.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews

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