the Happy Soul Industry
Faith is perhaps the greatest motivator
Recently Steffan Postaer, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Euro RSCG Chicago, sent me a copy of his latest book. His new tome is titled the Happy Soul Industry and until it arrived in the mail, I was not sure what to expect (knowing only the title and not having time to do any prior research). Sure, I could have quickly dreamt of several themes the title might possibly support. However, I was cautious to hypothesize so quickly. After all, Postaer is a creative-type and well known for his fantastic work (among many other brands) on those "Curiously Strong Mints" of Altoids. I've been a fan of his work for some time now and I always enjoy the veracious posts he shares on his blog and elsewhere online. I couldn't wait to dig in to the pages of this book now. It's been a while since I have read anything good lately and I was hoping this might just change that.
After reading only a few chapters I found myself entrenched! I quickly identified this novel to be something unlike anything else I have ever come across (especially pertaining to the ad business). The reason being? Well, because it's readily apparent that faith and a higher power drive the story line here. That's right, I'm talking about the Lord. Rarely (and sadly) is reference to God brought up in the context of advertising unless it's the denouncing of His name in profanity of some sort. "Excellent!" I thought to myself as I began the book. I'm an ad man by trade myself, and also a faithful believer in God. Not only was it cool to be reading another book around advertising, but this novel was peppered with a greater message–one of faith. I regularly discuss religion with friends and family and how it all relates in the context of my profession. Was God putting this book into my hands for a reason? Was their a new perspective on faith that He was trying to communicate with me? Whoops! I said "He" and in this book–heaven and other beliefs are not portrayed as we typically expect them to be. God in this story is a woman (beautiful of course and magnificently luminesce). The author perches the reader gently into the intro where we're faced with the sorrow God sees in our loss of faith. She informs an angel of this sad reality in the Garden of Eden. It's made clear that earthly obsessions and sin have pushed aside Her magnificent love and she wishes to regain peace and relationships with her children again. What's more is the proposition she exclaims to the angel to rectify the Church's connection to Her message and enduring care. God commands the angel to take to earth and select an advertising agency to enliven hope, encourage faith in Her, and promote all that is good.
The book is filled with twists and stimulating drama each and every chapter. Although it's certainly not biblically accurate, it does an amazing job of inspiring parallel thoughts around God, the devil, and the morals that we live by. I think I even began to hear this song play out in my head when God's angel meets an intriguing women he can't somehow deny. You'll experience heady CEO's of the largest ad agencies vying for the business of an angel (disguised as an unruffled and mysterious executive), God's most vexing topic with the devil, and perhaps why even the greatest slogan of all doesn't suffice in advocation.
Go and read this book!
Recently Steffan Postaer, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Euro RSCG Chicago, sent me a copy of his latest book. His new tome is titled the Happy Soul Industry and until it arrived in the mail, I was not sure what to expect (knowing only the title and not having time to do any prior research). Sure, I could have quickly dreamt of several themes the title might possibly support. However, I was cautious to hypothesize so quickly. After all, Postaer is a creative-type and well known for his fantastic work (among many other brands) on those "Curiously Strong Mints" of Altoids. I've been a fan of his work for some time now and I always enjoy the veracious posts he shares on his blog and elsewhere online. I couldn't wait to dig in to the pages of this book now. It's been a while since I have read anything good lately and I was hoping this might just change that.
After reading only a few chapters I found myself entrenched! I quickly identified this novel to be something unlike anything else I have ever come across (especially pertaining to the ad business). The reason being? Well, because it's readily apparent that faith and a higher power drive the story line here. That's right, I'm talking about the Lord. Rarely (and sadly) is reference to God brought up in the context of advertising unless it's the denouncing of His name in profanity of some sort. "Excellent!" I thought to myself as I began the book. I'm an ad man by trade myself, and also a faithful believer in God. Not only was it cool to be reading another book around advertising, but this novel was peppered with a greater message–one of faith. I regularly discuss religion with friends and family and how it all relates in the context of my profession. Was God putting this book into my hands for a reason? Was their a new perspective on faith that He was trying to communicate with me? Whoops! I said "He" and in this book–heaven and other beliefs are not portrayed as we typically expect them to be. God in this story is a woman (beautiful of course and magnificently luminesce). The author perches the reader gently into the intro where we're faced with the sorrow God sees in our loss of faith. She informs an angel of this sad reality in the Garden of Eden. It's made clear that earthly obsessions and sin have pushed aside Her magnificent love and she wishes to regain peace and relationships with her children again. What's more is the proposition she exclaims to the angel to rectify the Church's connection to Her message and enduring care. God commands the angel to take to earth and select an advertising agency to enliven hope, encourage faith in Her, and promote all that is good.
The book is filled with twists and stimulating drama each and every chapter. Although it's certainly not biblically accurate, it does an amazing job of inspiring parallel thoughts around God, the devil, and the morals that we live by. I think I even began to hear this song play out in my head when God's angel meets an intriguing women he can't somehow deny. You'll experience heady CEO's of the largest ad agencies vying for the business of an angel (disguised as an unruffled and mysterious executive), God's most vexing topic with the devil, and perhaps why even the greatest slogan of all doesn't suffice in advocation.
Go and read this book!
Labels: Advertising
This entry was posted by cam, on
3/26/2009.
