The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism [Anglais] [Broché]

In his book-length essay The Conquest of Cool, Thomas Frank explores the ways in which Madison Avenue co-opted the language of youthful '60s rebellion. It is "the story," Frank writes, "of the bohemian cultural style's trajectory from adversarial to hegemonic; the story of hip's mutation from native language of the alienated to that of advertising." This appropriation had wide-ranging consequences that deeply transformed our culture--consequences that linger in the form of '90s "hip consumerism." (Think of Nike using the song "Revolution" to sell sneakers, or Coca-Cola using replicas of Ken Kesey's bus to peddle Fruitopia.)

This is no simplistic analysis of how the counterculture "sold out" to big business. Instead, Frank shows how the counterculture and business culture influenced one another. In fact, he writes, the counterculture's critique of mass society mimicked earlier developments in business itself, when a new generation of executives attacked the stultified, hierarchical nature of corporate life. Counterculture and business culture evolved together over time--until the present day, when they have become essentially the same thing. According to Frank, the '60s live on in the near-archetypal dichotomy of "hip" and "square," now part of advertising vernacular, signifying a choice between consumer styles. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

...provides an invaluable argument for anyone who has ever scoffed at hand-me-down counterculture from the '60s... a spirited and exhaustive analysis of that era's advertising... --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

The most evocative and representative symbol of the 1960s is its youth counterculture. Yet as we learn in Thomas Frank's fascinating and revealing new study, the youthful revolutionaries were joined--and even anticipated by--such unlikely allies as the advertising industry and the men's clothing business. In both areas, each an important pillar of fifties conservatism, the utopian, complacent surface of postwar consumerism was smashed by a new breed of businessmen who openly addressed public distrust of their industries, who recognized the absurdity of consumer society, who made war on conformity, and who, by the decade's end, had settled on youth rebellion and counterculture as the symbol of choice for their new marketing vision.

In the fifties, Madison Avenue had deluged the country with images of clear-eyed junior executives in fedoras, happy housewives baking perfect cakes, and idealized families in gloriously tailfinned American cars. But during the "creative revolution" of the sixties, Frank shows how the ad industry turned savagely on the very icons it had created, debunking the Detroit automobile in the Dodge Rebellion, celebrating irrepressible youth with the Pepsi Generation, and imagining brands as signifiers of rule-breaking, defiance, difference, and revolt. Meanwhile the menswear industry, erstwhile maker of staid, unchanging garments, began ridiculing its own traditions as remnants of intolerable conformity and discovered youth insurgency as an ideal symbol for the colorful fashions it hoped to introduce. Thus, the strategy of co-opting dissident style that is so commonplace in today's hip, commercial culture emerged.

Focusing on such advertising campaigns as those for Volkswaagon, Volvo, and Virginia Slims, the Dodge Rebellion, the Pepsi Generation, and the rise of GQ magazine, Thomas Frank demystifies Sixties counterculture while regaling readers with the curious history of co-optation.

Accessibly written in Frank's engaging and energetic style, The Conquest of Cool is a thorough, enlightened history of advertising as well as an incisive commentary on the evolution of American sensibility. Exposing a part of the cultural revolution that was ubiquitous but largely invisible, Frank adds detail to a part of the sixties canvas that has remained blank, while pointing the way toward a reconsideration of an almost mythic decade. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

Most people remember the youth counterculture of the 1960s, but Thomas Frank shows that another revolution shook American business during those boom years. He shows how the youthful revolutionaries were joined--and even anticipated--by such unlikely allies as the advertising industry and the men's clothing business. Halftones & tables.

Read an excerpt online.

THE CONQUEST OF COOL is a new take on the Sixties, a re-juggling of the icons, an overturning of the shibboleths. Tom Frank takes a sharp look at the business culture of the 1960s and its relation to the counterculture of the Sixties. Todd Gitlin called the book "a forceful and convincing demonstration of the cunning of commercialism. Advertisers knew what was hip before hippie entrepreneurs, and this story, told here with verve and lucidity, is well worth the attention of all serious readers."

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY gave the book a starred review: "bristlingly intelligent . . . adroitly illuminates the intricacies behind the familiar stories of the '60s . . . frequently brilliant."

You may read an excerpt from Chapter One at

Tom Frank is founder/editor of the Chicago-based journal of literature and cultural criticism, THE BAFFLER. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .