The total package : the evolution and secret meanings of boxes, bottles, cans, and tubes / Thomas Hine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hine, Thomas, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Packaging--Social aspects--United States.

Packaging.

Packaging--United States--Psychological aspects.

Advertising--Social aspects--United States.

Advertising.

Physical Description:

xi, 289 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Little, Brown, ©1995.

Summary:

In the average half-hour trip to the supermarket, 30,000 products vie for the shopper's attention, and those that get noticed have only a sixth of a second to make their sales pitch. Today's marketers know they have to trigger desire instantly - and they do so, visually, by creating packages that make exactly the right promises.

Packages understand you better than you understand packages, and The Total Package tells why. It is a delightful and erudite exploration of the way modern packages play on our deepest fears and desires to sell us germ-killing soap or high-profile vodka. Ranging from ancient Mesopotamia to Madison Avenue, from Aunt Jemima to Madonna, from Marlboros to McDonald's, Thomas Hine surveys packaging throughout history, exploring how advances in bottles, cans, and boxes have remade products, stores, and modern life. A package is a protector, a friend, and, ultimately, a piece of trash.contributions to world culture.

Packages as small as a pillbox or as large as Walt Disney World play on the emotions, even as they promise predictable satisfactions. With an eye for the profound and the absurd, The Total Package describes the exploits of the oatmeal barons, medicine hucksters, psychologists, engineers, and marketing wizards who have made the art of packaging one of America's dominant contributions to world culture.

The Total Package is a fascinating look at the unexpected meanings hidden in the most familiar boxes, bottles, cans, and tubes found in every home. Thomas Hine decodes their secret language in a lively narrative revealing the way we sell our products and ourselves, and changing forever the way we see our increasingly packaged world.

Contents:

What's in a package

Holding magic

Trusting the package

The grocer couldn't help it

Serve yourself

A world of packages

The art of the package

Seeing and believing

Empties.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-277) and index.

Local Notes:

HSP Copy: Inscribed by author

ISBN:

0316364800

9780316364805

OCLC:

31288019