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Inventing Desire: Inside Chiat/Day : The Hottest Shop, the Coolest Players, the Big Business of Advertising
From inside the ad industry's reigning creative "hot shop"--Chiat/Day--Stabiner lays bare today's toughest, most seductive business and captures the volatile process of ad making--from concept to commercial. 16 pages of photographs.
- GenresNonfiction
351 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1993
About the author
Karen Stabiner
16 books17 followersKaren Stabiner is a journalist and author of narrative non-fiction. She has co-authored the cookbooks Family Table, a collection of staff meal recipes and backstage stories from Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants, and The Valentino Cookbook with Piero Selvaggio. Her feature articles and essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, as well as in the Los Angeles Times, Saveur, Travel & Leisure and Gourmet. Her work has appeared in Best Food Writing anthologies. Stabiner teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 25, 2017
In the 1980s, advertising agency Chiat/Day was gaining accolades for creating some of the most cutting edge ad campaigns for clients such as Nissan, Reebok, Energizer, and Apple. After being named Agency of the Decade in 1990, this pinnacle of success seemed like the perfect time for founder Jay Chiat to step back from the day-to-day operations of the main office in Venice, California, into semi-retirement, in order to focus on expanding the business internationally. The award served more as a curse however, and this book covers that turbulent year—the changes in leadership, the company growing too fast too quickly, sometimes losing sight of some accounts, which they subsequently lost; potential clients lost in the pitch due to lack of direction stemming from internal issues; and a recession that resulted in their existing clients spending less—and how they found their way back.
It appears as though the author was given full access to all the internal challenges faced during the ups and downs of this period in the ad agency’s history, including their efforts to keep many of them from becoming public. Working at an ad agency myself, she accurately conveys the advertising industry as a tempestuous business, which lives and dies with each account won or lost, yet quickly forgotten when chasing the next big account. Stabiner also captures the quirky work hard/play hard atmosphere of ad agencies, the stubborn and eccentric personalities involved, and their role in the delicate balance of financially-minded individuals, as well as creative spirits—requisite in order to breathe life into both an enduring ad campaign and company. Minus a few typos, this is otherwise well done. 3.5 stars
It appears as though the author was given full access to all the internal challenges faced during the ups and downs of this period in the ad agency’s history, including their efforts to keep many of them from becoming public. Working at an ad agency myself, she accurately conveys the advertising industry as a tempestuous business, which lives and dies with each account won or lost, yet quickly forgotten when chasing the next big account. Stabiner also captures the quirky work hard/play hard atmosphere of ad agencies, the stubborn and eccentric personalities involved, and their role in the delicate balance of financially-minded individuals, as well as creative spirits—requisite in order to breathe life into both an enduring ad campaign and company. Minus a few typos, this is otherwise well done. 3.5 stars
June 27, 2011
Chiat/Day, the ad agency that brought the world the Energizer bunny, is just what the subtitle states "the hottest, coolest shop in the ad industry." I learned this even before reading the book because of the excellent documentary film “Art and Copy.” The film features many ad execs, including Lee Clow, who was Chiat/Day’s creative director in the year this book takes place (1990) and may be CEO today. The film taught me that the ad industry isn’t made up of a bunch of suit-wearing MBAs, but artists, and none exemplifies this more than Clow. He’s a hippie-ish California surfer who prefers the term “media arts” to “advertising.” Google for videos of him and you’ll see for yourself.
Clow comes across as the most likable “main character” in this book, but there are two others. First, there’s Jay Chiat, founder of the agency, who at the beginning of the book is ready to retire and name a successor. He offers the job to Clow, who prefers to remain chief creative. Chiat then offers the job to Bob Wolf, and the rest of the book is about how Wolf and Clow attempt to work together, where they fail and where they succeed. There are a host of “minor characters” in the book, too, but I could never keep their names and positions straight. The one who made the clearest impression was Jane Newman, the head of the New York office who gets a demotion along the way. It’s a shame because she came across as an especially nice person; she wouldn’t fire anyone without connecting them to a headhunter if not an actual job lead. She’s no longer in advertising today; she’s running schools in Kenya. Isn’t that awesome?
My overall impression of the ad industry after reading this book is that it’s tougher and more competitive than I thought. The creatives (i.e. the graphic artists and copywriters) compete to get their own ideas accepted, even though they’re supposed to be collaborating. Well, that’s the artistic ego for you. Then there’s the pressure from the internal business managers like Wolf, who are in turn responding to the pressures of the corporate clients. Losing this or that corporate account is a major focus of the book. It was the cause of Jane Newman's demotion.
All this reminded me of what Dorothea Brande wrote about an artist’s psychological make-up. An artist is one part imagination and one part inner critic, and while the imagination is the more important part of the team, the critic often has the stronger voice, so the trick is to get them into balance. When you see the stereotypical temperamental artist, she says, what you’re seeing is an artist out of balance. Chiat/Day was the same, except on a larger, multi-person scale. I do not say this to fault them, though, since I’m sure they’re not unique in this.
The book was interesting, although a little choppy and hard to follow. I also think it was a little longer than it needed to be, especially in the middle. Since the book takes place in 1990, there’s no discussion at all of how the Internet and social media have revolutionized advertising. Still, the book was informative and well-researched, and the last line was absolutely perfect.
Clow comes across as the most likable “main character” in this book, but there are two others. First, there’s Jay Chiat, founder of the agency, who at the beginning of the book is ready to retire and name a successor. He offers the job to Clow, who prefers to remain chief creative. Chiat then offers the job to Bob Wolf, and the rest of the book is about how Wolf and Clow attempt to work together, where they fail and where they succeed. There are a host of “minor characters” in the book, too, but I could never keep their names and positions straight. The one who made the clearest impression was Jane Newman, the head of the New York office who gets a demotion along the way. It’s a shame because she came across as an especially nice person; she wouldn’t fire anyone without connecting them to a headhunter if not an actual job lead. She’s no longer in advertising today; she’s running schools in Kenya. Isn’t that awesome?
My overall impression of the ad industry after reading this book is that it’s tougher and more competitive than I thought. The creatives (i.e. the graphic artists and copywriters) compete to get their own ideas accepted, even though they’re supposed to be collaborating. Well, that’s the artistic ego for you. Then there’s the pressure from the internal business managers like Wolf, who are in turn responding to the pressures of the corporate clients. Losing this or that corporate account is a major focus of the book. It was the cause of Jane Newman's demotion.
All this reminded me of what Dorothea Brande wrote about an artist’s psychological make-up. An artist is one part imagination and one part inner critic, and while the imagination is the more important part of the team, the critic often has the stronger voice, so the trick is to get them into balance. When you see the stereotypical temperamental artist, she says, what you’re seeing is an artist out of balance. Chiat/Day was the same, except on a larger, multi-person scale. I do not say this to fault them, though, since I’m sure they’re not unique in this.
The book was interesting, although a little choppy and hard to follow. I also think it was a little longer than it needed to be, especially in the middle. Since the book takes place in 1990, there’s no discussion at all of how the Internet and social media have revolutionized advertising. Still, the book was informative and well-researched, and the last line was absolutely perfect.
April 4, 2014
This book was on the shelves of a local gym and I chose it to read a little after finishing my workout. I didn't believe I would read the whole book, but it looked better than the rest. But the writing style, subject, and nonfiction documentary aspect stuck in my mind. On my next return, I continued reading. I soon began to worry that the book may disappear (it was on the "Take One, Leave One" shelf) and began hiding it behind others (shhh . . ., don't tell). It was that well-written and full of suspense. It also struck me, as an R&D scientist, how similar the debate is in corporate situations as to how much is invested on the "creative" side versus the "marketing and business goals" side. It took a couple of months, but I finished the book and I still think about it. Great read, and useful insights.
January 13, 2008
This book is about a year, 1990, at Chiat/Day, a west coast advertising agency. The book is about the firm founder's desire to step back and allow the agency to grow without him. It's also about the firm's constant need to change and find new clients. Really well done.
January 21, 2011
I was in the ad industry for over a decade and loved it. Ms Stabiner tells a compelling story of one of the all time great "hot shops."
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews