Stay Free presents: Ad Nauseam

carrie mclaren stayfreemagazine at gmail.com
Tue Jun 16 13:43:48 EDT 2009


It's been a while since you've heard from us but after two years, Stay Free
finally has a book coming out on June 23: _Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to
American Consumer Culture_.

I've copied what our publisher (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) says about it below
because after 2 years I can no longer think of anything original to say
about it. Except that Amazon is selling it for $12.54 (bargain!):
http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Nauseam-Survivors-American-Consumer/dp/0865479879

Or you could buy it from us for $18 (including postage in the USA):
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/order.html

* * * * *

AD NAUSEAM
A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture

With the style and irreverence of Vice magazine and the critique of the
corporatocracy that made Naomi Klein's No Logo a global hit, the cult
magazine Stay Free!—long considered the Adbusters of the United States—is
finally offering a compendium of new and previously published material on
the impact of consumer culture on our lives. The book questions, in the
broadest sense, what happens to human beings when their brains are
constantly assaulted by advertising and corporate messages. Most people
assert that advertising is easily ignored and doesn't have any effect on
them or their decision making, but Ad Nauseam shows that consumer pop
culture does take its toll.

In an engaging, accessible, and graphically appealing style, Carrie McLaren
and Jason Torchinsky (as well as contributors such as David Cross, The
Onion's Joe Garden, The New York Times's Julie Scelfo, and others) discuss
everything from why the TV program CSI affects jury selection, to the
methods by which market researchers stalk shoppers, to how advertising
strategy is like dog training. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening
account of the many ways consumer culture continues to pervade and transform
American life.

* * *

"In his opening salvo in the mental war against the paradoxes of late
capitalism, George W. S. Trow proposed a motto: 'Wounded by the Million;
Healed—One by One.' What the editors of Stay Free! set up inside the
brilliant framework of their magazine is an arena where writers can roll up
their sleeves and get cheerfully to work at shrugging off the succubus of
commercial culture—for their own sakes, and for all our sakes. This book is
a treasury of Trow's kind of healing." —Jonathan Lethem, author of The
Fortress of Solitude

* * *

"There's no better way for you to avoid the pitfalls of our sinister
consumer culture than by buying this book. Purchase it now. And make sure to
browse the store's wide selection of novelty bookmarks." —Patton Oswalt,
actor and comedian

* * *

"Equal parts damning and delightful, Ad Nauseam is a guide for every
shell-shocked consumer besieged by American commodity culture, a
battleground where the greatest danger is thinking you're smarter than an
ad."
-- Ben Popken, Consumerist.com

* * *

"As a longtime critic of advertising, I welcome this collection of smart and
sassy, illuminating and entertaining essays. This book is a must for anyone
concerned about the increasingly pervasive and pernicious impact of the
consumer culture on our lives and our world."
-- Jean Kilbourne, author of Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the
Way We Think and Feel and Killing Us Softly

* * *

Carrie McLaren founded Stay Free! in 1993. A longtime blogger, she speaks
regularly on the topic of advertising and media. Jason Torchinsky is a
writer for the Onion News Network; he's based in Los Angeles.
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