The masterful tentacles of advertising and public relations have manipulated the American table for more than a century. Christina Ward, the author of “American Advertising Cookbooks,” describes the promotional cookbooks of the 1930s to ’70s to tell the story, but she covers a longer timeline, giving the history of cookbooks, of branded food products and even of government involvement both beneficial (the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906) and underhanded (the role of the Dulles brothers in the banana business). A key player was Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, who in the 1920s helped pioneer the use of psychology to target women through advertising. A photograph of a luncheon-meat salad mold is scarcely more horrifying than the details that led to the creation of the dish. There is much to learn in this book.
“American Advertising Cookbooks: How Corporations Taught Us to Love Spam, Bananas and Jell-O” by Christina Ward (Process Media, $22.95, paperback).
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