A BRANDED WORLD

This insider’s glimpse into the manipulative world of branding is sedately delivered by reader Lloyd James in a bland, occasionally smirking tone. This seems appropriate, as author Levine, a marketing guru, has “handled” movie star and rock star clients (Michael Jackson, among others), corporate public relations disasters, and major product launches. He’s rather smug about it all. James walks us through the creation and cold-blooded branding of a fictional brand of ice cream to illustrate the “creation of a superbrand,” a quasi- psy-ops project that requires marketers to second-guess every nuance of public response. While full of useful pointers, A BRANDED WORLD suffers from its manipulative approach to marketing. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 04]