Image Makers

"Ever more fantastic and convincing fictions" are cooked up all the time by advertisers, write the authors, but what does it mean for society? This intellectual discourse on the broader meanings of advertising takes an unusual approach, looking at the creation, interpretation, and manipulation of images through the twin lenses of sociology and anthropology. Jackall, a professor of sociology at Williams College, and Hirota, an anthropologist, take the long view: Image-making, they point out, is as old as humankind. By delving into the "habits of mind" of advertising history and its modern practitioners, they demonstrate why it exerts such a powerful influence on the world.