Kindle
$14.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$7.03
Kindle Price: $14.99

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $17.46

Save: $9.97 (57%)

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Dave Marinaccio
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Admen, Mad Men, and the Real World of Advertising: Essential Lessons for Business and Life Kindle Edition

by Dave Marinaccio (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 37 ratings
See all formats and editions
A bestselling author and advertising veteran shares a life’s lessons from the ad trade.

Dave Marinaccio, cofounder and the creative director of LMO Advertising, is a veteran of the industry who, as a young man starting out, studied stand-up at Second City in Chicago. He later wrote an international bestseller, All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek. His equally entertaining new book takes us inside the world of advertising, offering stories and observations from his three decades at some of America's best-known agencies, working with clients from Pizza Hut to the Holocaust Museum. In short, punchy chapters, Dave pulls back the curtain and shares his insights on how marketing decisions are made and other lessons. His topics range from logos, the big idea, and selling perfume to how we undervalue our gifts, to do-overs, celebrities, and "meetingsmanship." And more than a few lessons turn out to be apt not just for business but for our stressed-out lives.

Admen, Mad Men, and the Real World of Advertising is written to be easily digestible by interns, CEOS, or anyone who has ever watched a television commercial or clicked on a banner ad. Irreverent, packed with useful information, and unflinchingly honest, it is a serious business book by a seriously funny man and a must for anyone who lives, works, or plays in today's commercial culture.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    232 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Arcade
  5. Publication date
    November 3, 2015
  6. File size
    960 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Editorial Reviews

Review

“David is both a thinker, as this book demonstrates, and a doer of the first order. Great guy on top of it all.”—David Bell, former CEO IPG, past chairman 4As, Advertising Hall of Fame 2007

“Dave has an active and agile mind, and he’s always a fun read.”—Martine Rothblatt,author and entrepreneur, CEO United Therapeutics, SXSW Interactive Keynote 2015

"After decades in the ad business, as well as writing fifteen books on the subject, I can say that I basically agree with what Dave Marinaccio wrote in Admen, Mad Men, and the Real World of Advertising. It’s loaded with good advertising sense and is well worth reading." —Jack Trout, Global Marketing Expert and author

"For die-hard Mad Men fans who want to read about the world of advertising from someone who has spent years in the thick of it, this will fit the bill." —Library Journal

“Marinaccio’s willing to share in this book . . . the basic, fundamental, timeless truths that the real, rare professionals in this industry know, but that for some reason too rarely get passed along.” —Agency Review

About the Author

Dave Marinaccio worked for J. Walter Thompson, Foote Cone & Belding, Bozell Worldwide, DMB&B, and others before cofounding LMO Advertising, which has grown to a multimillion-dollar company with national reach. He is the author of the international bestselller All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek. An irregular contributor to News Channel 8 in Washington, DC, he has written and spoken about advertising in the media and lectured in venues as diverse as the Smithsonian Institution, college campuses, law firms, and Star Trek conventions. He resides in Washington, DC, with his wife, Leslie, and three cats.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06XPNTRSN
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Arcade (November 3, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 3, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 960 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 232 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1628725729
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 37 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Dave Marinaccio

Dave Marinaccio

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Dave Marinaccio worked for J. Walter Thompson; Foote, Cone & Belding; and others before cofounding LMO Advertising, which has grown to a multimillion-dollar company. The author of the international bestseller "All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek", he has written and spoken about advertising in the media and lectured in venues as diverse as the Smithsonian Institution, law firms, and Star Trek conventions. He resides in Washington, DC, with his wife, Leslie.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
37 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

JodyTuckerDotCom
5.0 out of 5 stars This writing rocks! Read, and learn!
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2018
Verified Purchase
I live in the world of advertising, and appreciate how "Admen, Mad Men ..." illustrated new understandings on the business, and reinforced what I already knew. Reading this book gave me laughs, hope, and motivation in my personal pursuits to win and please clients. Marinacco rocked this writing, and I hope to shake his hand.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Joshua Lamb
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book.
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2023
Verified Purchase
As someone very interested in the power of story telling. I took a lot of knowledge out of it while enjoying it the whole way through.
Helpful
 Report
The Agency Review
4.0 out of 5 stars the best way to be sure you are talking to someone ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2015
There are a many ways that you can tell if someone really understands advertising - though they’re probably not what you think they are.

For example, you can’t tell by the number of awards they have on their shelf. You can’t tell by the way they dress (client expectations to the contrary) or by the names they drop in conversation, or by the obliqueness of their references to Mad Men.

No, in my experience, the best way to be sure you are talking to someone who really understands advertising, who really gets what it can do, what it can’t, how it works, how it doesn't, and why it’s, on occasion, remarkable, is by their articulation of a handful of simple, often unpleasant, observations about this business. Observations borne out of years of experience and close attention to the actual business of this business. Observations that would make a lesser person cynical to the point of abandoning this industry for something less frustrating and more rewarding.

Observations like: “Astonishingly, many bad and banal ideas work. Not because they are bad or banal but because advertising works. Good advertising works better than bad advertising, but bad advertising works better than no advertising.”

Or like this: “Alas, the agency will not change the bad client. More likely, the bad client will change the agency. But it will all come down to the same thing. The client will get exactly the work they deserve.”

Or perhaps most importantly this:

“That’s the difference between an ad and advertising. Anyone can write an ad. What they can’t do is write an ad on deadline, on budget, with sales going down, the client all over your back, the phone ringing, and you need to have an idea, NOW. Then tomorrow, when everything you have done is rejected, resetting and delivering a fresh approach.”

The person who understands those things is someone you should entrust your advertising to. And based on what he’s written in Ad Men, Mad Men & the Real World of Advertising (from which we have been quoting), it would appear that Dave Marinaccio is one of those people.

Marinaccio began (to read the rest of this review, please visit
[...]
Helpful
 Report
Grump
3.0 out of 5 stars Not much meat
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2016
Verified Purchase
Amusing, but little substance. Much like a commercial.
Helpful
 Report
Grady Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, witty and great for anyone in business!
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
The author's ability to not only provide insight into the American advertising environment yet poke fun at all the elements proved to be a wonderful and easy read...thoroughly enjoyed the book!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
patrickhmcg
5.0 out of 5 stars As good a business book as you can buy
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2016
Verified Purchase
Marinaccio had me at hello, no, wait. He had me the moment he said this book would not be written in a specific order; it was written in the order of the thoughts that came to him. At that moment I knew he was the real deal and this book is as well. It's as useful as anything by Collins or Gladwell.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
dean bastian
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and well written
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2015
Verified Purchase
Great primer for anyone interested in the advertising business. Well done Dave.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Richard Newton
3.0 out of 5 stars A book of Short Essays
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2016
Verified Purchase
This is really a book of 500 word essays. Some are good and some are not. I read the entire book and liked it. I could only take about 4 of the essays per day.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report