Last Stop Before the Sphincter
Stories from the Hot Seat of My Crazy-Ass Career
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5.0 • 24 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Jeff Gorman, an internationally known, award-winning advertising writer, creative director and TV commercial director has written a first person, profane, hilarious book of tell-all stories that are often so preposterous that if they were scenes from a movie you'd say they couldn't possibly be true. Last Stop Before the Sphincter gives the reader a realistic, inside look at the ad biz covering the period when Don Draper and Mad Men left off to the present that will have you laughing at the absurdity of what goes on in Corporate America. It also features the celebrities Gorman filmed from Michael Jordan to Jerry Seinfeld, George Burns to Jimmy Kimmel, Mark Cuban to Jeff Bezos. The world of advertising not only touches on all of our lives but reflects it. More and more, advertising is an inescapable reality where everything is sponsored. Last Stop Before the Sphincter exposes the people behind the ads—the good, the bad and the ugly—and makes you think about the psychology of those who are the drivers of American consumerism.
Customer Reviews
Global Director TBWA/Media Arts Lab
“So Jeff Gorman is a storyteller. In his book, Last Stop Before the Sphincter, he sets out to tell you 40 stories about the stuff he experienced first-hand that you could hardly imagine goes on in advertising. If you’ve ever liked a TV commercial and wondered what kind of crazy people think these things up, Jeff, with his cynical wit, tells you. When you read how understanding the sphincter explains so much about the Ad Biz, the title and the stories become bitingly clear. Funny, crazy, irreverent.
-- Lee Clow, Former Creative Director Chiat/Day and current Global Director TBWA/Media Arts Lab
Former President and CD, Fallon Worldwide
“Jeff Gorman is funny. Sarcastic. Fearless. And, tirelessly, caustically, cynically observant. Especially about himself. You can smell the bridges burning as you read."
I would have written this witout the bribe. Maybe.
If nothing else, “Last Stop Before the Sphincter” will prove to even the most skeptical among the fast-thinning ranks of people who actually give a crap about advertising that Jeff Gorman has to rank as one of the most inventJive, effective and inspired commercials directors of both this century and the last. Read this book with a particular eye on the spots he includes: What you will discover is that they simply do not make, breed, construct, clone, mutate, distill, or otherwise artificially inseminate ‘em like Gorman any more. More’s the pity, because this book shines a bright and unforgiving light on how much standards have been shredded and how hard we’re all going to have to struggle to get even close to previous conceptual levels—doubly challenging in a world where one-off social stunts command just as much industry respect as yesterday’s multi-year, multi-hit brand smash. The good news: With considerable style and verve—and more than a few industry classics (who knew that “ONDC” meant “On Location Doesn’t Count”), Gorman provides a master’s class in how to think about creative, what separates conceptual wheat from chaff, ditto ideas from excuses, and the essential nature of craft in turning the evanescent glimmer of creative potential into executional genius. The result: even those of us without Sir Martin’s bloated paycheck have at least three 3 irrefutable reasons to deposit our paltry few remaining salary sheckles in this book. First, there is the richly biting wit, delivered with the same fish-eye deadpan that comes with the man himself. Second, there’s the lovely story telling that might be unexpected in a writer mostly known for short-form gems. And last and lowest, if not least, there’s the chance to consider the larger role Gorman’s sphincter played in his prolific career. Who’d ever pass up an opportunity like that? - Jef Loeb, executive creative director/writer/director, Brainchild Creative