Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You and What This Says About You

by Julie Sedivy, Greg Carlson

As citizens of capitalist, free-market societies, we tend to celebrate choice and competition. However, in the 21st century, as we have gained more and more choices, we have also become greater targets for persuasive messages from advertisers who want to make those choices for us. In Sold on Language, noted language scientists Julie Sedivy and Greg Carlson examine how rampant competition shapes the ways in which commercial and political advertisers speak to us. In an environment saturated with information, advertising messages attempt to compress as much persuasive power into as small a linguistic space as possible. These messages, the authors reveal, might take the form of a brand name whose sound evokes a certain impression, a turn of phrase that gently applies peer pressure, or a subtle accent that zeroes in on a target audience. As more and more techniques of persuasion are aimed squarely at the corner of our mind which automatically takes in information without conscious thought or deliberation, does 'endless choice' actually mean the end of true choice?

Sold on Language offers thought-provoking insights into the choices we make as consumers and citizens - and the choices that are increasingly being made for us.

Click here for more discussion and debate on the authors' blog:
http: //www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sold-lan...

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Genres: Language, Nonfiction, Linguistics, Psychology, Business

336 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2010

Reviews

[Atila Iamarino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qualquer reserva que eu tinha pelo começou ou meio do livro terminou com o capítulo final. No começo, fala bastante sobre gramática, linguagem e comunicação, usando a propaganda como desculpa. No meio, fala bastante sobre como o cérebro funciona e muito sobre a interface entre economia e psicologia, que vários outros livros como Rápido e Devagar: Duas Formas de Pensar ou Previsivelmente Irracional cobrem melhor. Mas o capítulo final sobre como funciona a publicidade de campanhas políticas foi muito bom, amarrando todo o conteúdo do livro. Com certeza um conteúdo que vou reler ano que vem.

[Peter Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm very interesting – awful tempted to use this as a handbook as to how to advertise though I am not sure that is what the authors intended! – thoroughly recommended as an interesting academic study – or as a how to manual :-)

[John Fredrickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good and approachable book on the use of language, but feels like it is mostly geared to introducing the subject to its readers in general terms. Many of the stories that the authors tell were familiar to me already.

The book ends with a discussion of political manipulations involving language, insinuations, and missteps. While these were fairly interesting in their own right, it wasn't clear to me that this section really belonged in the book?

[Tuan Do · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read Julie's Language in Mind, I think this book is like an attempt to popularize psycholinguistic topics in that book to a larger audience. It's however not a very interesting read, I would rather go straight to her more academic book if I want to learn about these topics.

[J K · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't like the cover either.

[meliss]

Maybe another time.

[Daniel Caughill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really took me by surprise. I though it would be so dull, but it's fascinating, and also we're all basically just robots.

[Soren · Rating 2 out of 5]

dry and too complicated and extremely presumptuous