Advertising and Identity in Europe: The I of the Beholder

Book Description

Advertisers target specific groups of consumers and appeal to them precisely in terms of their sense of group membership. So, as our sense of group identity is broken down by global communications technologies, how do adverts continue to target mass audiences?

This volume stands alone as the first structured assessment of the impact of advertising, in terms of culture and of business, across the national boundaries of Europe. It considers the successes and failures of several internaational strategic marketing plans, and describes stylistic and persuasive qualities of specific promotional texts. With examples from Scandinavia to the Iberian Peninsula, the contributors also explore the different constructions of regional, national, social and sexual identities exploited by advertisers to render their messages effective. As a result, the book will be of interest to scholars of media studies, language, and cultural studies as well as those working in marketing.

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Very Poor Use of Your Time

Funny, Realistic Intro to Consulting, Although Highly Negative

Misleading

Light Entertainment

I had Mr. Price in 7th grade too!

House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time
Martin Kihn
Manufacturer: Business Plus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0446576565

Book Description

DESCRIPTION: In the bestselling tradition of Liar's Poker comes a devastatingly accurate and darkly hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the wonderful world of management consulting. Once upon a time in Corporate America there was a group of men and women who were paid huge fees to tell organizations what they were doing wrong and how to improve themselves. These men and women promised everything and delivered nothing, said they were experts when they were not, sometimes ruined careers, and at best, only wasted time, energy, and huge sums of money. They called themselves Management Consultants....Welcome to the world of Martin Kihn, a former stand-up comic and EmmyÆ Award-nominated television writer who decided to "go straight" and earn his MBA at a prestigious Ivy League university. In HOUSE OF LIES, he chronicles his first two years as a newly-minted management consultant in all its unadulterated glory--the erroneous advice, the absurd arrogance, the vicious backstabbing, and the bloody power stuggles. Hey, it's all in a day's work...and it pays really well.

Customer Reviews:

Very Poor Use of Your Time.......2007-04-14

I worked for McKinsey & Company for five years and then built, with my co-founders, a startup into a Nasdaq-listed company that I led for five years as Chairman & CEO.

Based on that level of direct personal experience with top-tier management consulting firms and building and leading companies, I would simply say that there is a very good reason you can buy this book on Amazon for $0.22.

Funny, Realistic Intro to Consulting, Although Highly Negative.......2007-01-17

This book is a fast, fun read and a fairly realistic introduction to the negative aspects of consulting. Anyone considering a consulting career should read it to understand the downsides. The author is clearly a skilled writer, far better than most business writers. He is also very funny. It is rare to read a book that is a quick read, funny, and informative all at the same time. That's why I gave it five stars. The author touches on several aspects of consulting. He discusses a bit of his experience at Columbia Business Schools. The bulk of the book is taken up by his discussion of a couple of his consulting assignments. This is very much a worse-case scenario book. Most people don't have such a negative experience, but it is vitally important for those interested in consulting to be aware of what can and often does go wrong. I also think the author may not have been all that seriously interested in consulting as a career.

This book is especially useful for those who are trying to decide whether or not to go into consulting; many people become consultants just because that's what others do or because there is supposedly a lot of money to be made. Read this book before you make the decision to target consulting firms in your job hunt. If you read it and still are excited about consulting, then you will probably be a pretty good "fit' for consulting.

Misleading.......2006-07-24

The book is an interesting satire about the consultancy business. It provides some hilarious comments on some shortcomings about the services that consultants provide. The book is well written in simple and easy to follow language and style. However, the book is unbalanced.

I agree that consultants provide information that clients already knows. In fact, I would put it differently that good consultants employ Socratic questioning of their clients. Socrates is immortalized at least in part for his teaching approach of asking a line of questions that leads the student to discover answers for themselves. When clients discover answers to their problems, rather than simply hear them from the consultant, they will own the answers. Their ability to hold onto the concepts, apply them, and improve their situation will significantly improve. Therefore, when the author state that consultants are merely providing information that the client already knows, he is missing the point. What consultants need to learn is to improve their ability to help clients discover (through the use of Socratic questioning), their problems and then come up with practical workable solutions.

The author is, however, right that there are some terrible consultants out there who do not know what they are doing. However, it must be acknowledged that some companies have been saved through the intervention of consultants who provided some outside insights and solutions. A consultant is often an independent and qualified person with experience in the areas of speciality and has the ability to provide wider expertise than is available within a single organisation.

Light Entertainment.......2006-04-18

Saw the recommendation in the Economist; read the reviews here; checked it out from the library, which is what I recommend for you. One time through and you will be done, and you probably won't touch it again until you clean off your bookshelf. It's an okay read - not profound, but then it doesn't pretend to be.

I'm a former consultant, although been out of it for over twenty years. It's good if the story about the industry gets out, but it really shouldn't take this book to do it. How the industry works, how lame and pretentious some of the outfits are, including McK, really shouldn't be news by now. The story about the parts company is really the news. Real business people, real experienced combat veteran business people, make hash of consultants all the time, and it doesn't take a Harvard MBA to develop that skill.

In 2006 any policy/strategy consulting work being done is probably a form of surrogate warfare between insiders, and unless the firm's senior management is really stupid (a possibility never to be ruled out) probably always has been.

I had Mr. Price in 7th grade too!.......2006-03-29

I couldn't put this book down. The "consultant speak" glossary
in the back of the book is worth the price alone. At times,
the book would have benefited had Kihn's editor been more aggressive: the 3-4 page "consultant speak" monologue was a bit tedious ; the description of the plane ride could have been cut by a few pages. But it's almost shameful to direct such petty gripes at a true masterpiece. I wonder if, like the "counseled out" "alumni" of his former firm, Kihn is also invited back to parties and presentations of his former employer. A $5 rebate should go to every individual who finds the spot where he slips in the motto of his alma mater.

House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time

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House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time
Martin Kihn
Manufacturer: Warner Business
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NUFR64

Customer Reviews:

Charpentier: One of the most excellent composers France had.......2000-01-02

Cessac book on M.-A. Charpentier is a wonderful text. It gives a sense of the man, from the very limited sources available. It gives a careful discussion of most of his compositions, by genre. It is beautifully and poignantly written. A Charpentier devotee since 1973, I have read and reread many parts of the book since it was published in 1995. It is a must for Charpentier admirers as well as those interested in French baroque musique more broadly.

Trond Petersen Professor Social Sciences University of California

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Portraits Around Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Patricia M. Ranum
Manufacturer: Dux Femina Facti
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0966099737

Average customer rating:
Magnificat by Charpentier, Marc Antoine by Charpentier, Marc Antoine by Charpentier, Marc Antoine
Marc Antoine Charpentier
Manufacturer: St. Louis, MO: Concordia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LH4UKI

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Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Oxford Studies of Composers, 23)
H. Wiley Hitchcock
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Voice | Instruments & Performers | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0193164116

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Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 1634-1704 Un Musicien Francais Oublie.
Claude Crussard
Manufacturer: Librairie Floury
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KU8N54

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Marc-Antoine Charpentier, trans.from the French by E. Thomas Glascow
Catherine CESSAC
Manufacturer: Amadeus Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GT98MQ

Average customer rating:
Messe De Minuit Pour Noel (for soli & mised chorus with piano accompaniment, AE 370)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Manufacturer: Arista Music Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Latin | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
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Songbooks and Chorale Music | Music | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: B000NUNNOC

Product Description

Musical score with Latin lyrics for soloists & mixed chorus with piano accompaniment.

Messe de Minuit, H.9: Christmas Mass (Liturgical)

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Messe de Minuit, H.9: Christmas Mass (Liturgical)
Jean-Paul Montagnier
Manufacturer: Eulenburg
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Songbooks | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 3795767148

Book Description

Of the 11 surviving settings of the Mass by Charpentier, the Messe de Minuit is without doubt one of the most popular. Although Charpentier's Parisian career is quite well documented, little is known about the genesis and first performance of the Messe de Minuit. It is likely, however, that it was commissioned by the Jesuits of the church of Saint-Louis (today, Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis) for whom Charpentier had been working as maitre de musique since 1687. for SATB Chorus with SSATB Soli, 2 Flutes, Strings and Basso Continuo

Médée: Tragédie Lyrique En Un Prologue et Cinq Actes

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Médée: Tragédie Lyrique En Un Prologue et Cinq Actes
Marc Antoine; Thomas Corneille (poème de) Charpentier
Manufacturer: Théâtre De Caen et Actes Sud
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000TA0ZPG

Nine Settings of the Litanies de La Vierge (Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era,)

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Nine Settings of the Litanies de La Vierge (Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era,)
Marc Antoine Charpentier
Manufacturer: A-R Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0895793024

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The Self(Our Crowd is Dead)Chosen(Long Live Our Crowd)
Jean Baer
Manufacturer: Arbor House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0S8O6

Average customer rating:
Self-Chosen: "Our Crowd" Is Dead--Long Live "Our Crowd"
Jean Baer
Manufacturer: Arbor House Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0877955360

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