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Vance Packard, born
May
22,
1914, died
December 12,
1996
(aged 82), was an American journalist, social critic, and
author.
[edit]
Life and career
He was born in
Granville Summit, Pennsylvania to parents Philip J. Packard
and Mabel Case Packard. Between 1920-32 he attended local public
schools in
State College, Pennsylvania where his father managed a farm
owned by
Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). In 1932 he
entered Penn State, majoring in English. He graduated in 1936,
and worked briefly for the local newspaper, the
Centre Daily Times. He earned his master's degree at the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1937.
That year, he joined the
Boston Daily Record as a staff reporter and a year
later, he married Virginia Matthews.
About 1940, he became a reporter for the
Associated Press and in 1942, joined the staff of
American magazine as a section editor, later becoming a
staff writer. American closed in July, 1956, and Packard
moved over to
Collier's where he worked as a writer. Collier's,
too, closed by the end of 1956, and he is able to devote his
full energies to books. In 1957, The Hidden Persuaders
was published and received national attention. The book launched
Packard's career as a social critic and full-time lecturer and
book author. In 1961 he was named a Distinguished
Alumnus of Penn State University. He died in 1996 at his
summer house on
Martha's Vineyard in
Massachusetts.
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The Hidden Persuaders
Vance Packard's book
The Hidden Persuaders,
about media manipulation in the 1950s was a
forerunner of pop sociology. It sold more than a
million copies.
His million-selling book The Hidden Persuaders, about
media manipulation of the
populace in the 1950s was a forerunner of pop
sociology.
In The Hidden Persuaders, first published in 1957,
Packard explores the use of consumer
motivational research and other psychological techniques,
including depth psychology and
subliminal tactics, by advertisers to manipulate
expectations and induce desire for products, particularly in the
American postwar era. It also explores the manipulative
techniques of promoting politicians to the electorate. The book
questions the morality of using these techniques.
[edit]
Publications
- 1946 How to Pick a Mate - a guide co-authored
with the head of the Penn State
marriage counseling service
- 1950 Animal IQ - a popular paperback on
animal intelligence
- 1957 The Hidden Persuaders - on the
advertising industry - the first of a popular series of
books on sociology topics (ISBN
0-671-53149-2)
- 1959 The Status Seekers - describing American
social stratification and behavior
- 1960 The Waste Makers - criticizes
planned obsolescence describing the impact of American
productivity, especially on the national character
- 1962 The Pyramid Climbers - describes the
changing impact of American enterprise on managers, the
structured lives of corporate executives and the conformity
they need to advance in the hierarchy
- 1964 The Naked Society - on the threats to
privacy posed by new technologies such as computerized
filing, modern
surveillance techniques and methods for influencing
human
behavior
- 1968 The Sexual Wilderness - on the
sexual revolution of the 1960s and changes in
male-female relationships
- 1972 A Nation of Strangers - about the attrition
of communal structure through frequent geographical
transfers of corporate executives
- 1977 The People Shapers - on the use of
psychological & biological testing and experimentation to
manipulate human behavior
- 1983 Our Endangered Children - discusses growing
up in a changing world, warning that American preoccupation
with money, power, status, and sex, ignored the needs of
future generations
- 1989 Ultra Rich: How Much Is Too Much? - examines
the lives of thirty American multimillionaires and their
extravagances.
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External links
