Franz Kreuzer, Gerd Prechtl, Christoph Steiner. A Tiger in the Tank: Ernest Dichter: An Austrian Advertising Guru. Translated by Lars Henning. Riverside: Ariadne Press, 2007. 214 pp. ISBN 978-1-57241-152-4.
Reviewed by Joseph W. Moser (German Program, Washington & Jefferson College)
Published on H-German (June, 2009)
Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher
An Austrian Pioneer in the Psychology of Advertising
Ernest Dichter was born in Vienna in 1907 and studied psychology there. He was influenced by Paul Lazarsfeld and the Viennese scholars of cognitive theory in the 1930s. Coincidentally, he even grew up on Berggasse 19--just across the street from Sigmund Freud, though he never met the founder of psychoanalysis. He emigrated to the United States via Paris with his wife Hedy in 1937. In this country, he quickly made a name for himself as an expert in motivational techniques. He claims to have developed the concept of an image and may be most well recognized for the Esso slogan: "Put the Tiger in your Tank"; hence, the title of this interesting book.
This book is one of many useful English translations of Austrian literature and scholarship published by Ariadne Press. Originally entitled Tiger im Tank. Ernest Dichter. Ein Österreicher als Werbeguru (2002), the book features contributions from various Austrian scholars and writers. Following an introduction by Gerd Prechtl, the reader will find the transcript of an interview with Dichter conducted by Franz Kreuzer in the ORF-Nachtstudio in 1981. The third section of the book provides a portrait of Dichter by Thomas Cudlik and Christoph Steiner, followed by Peter Scheer's "Memories of a Friend." The fifth section provides the transcript of an interview that Gerd Prechtl conducted with Hedy Dichter, and this, in turn, is followed by three more transcripts of interviews with Patrick Schierholz, Christian Mikunda, and Paul Watzlawik. Finally, the book offers an essay by Dichter, "Interpretive Versus Descriptive Research," as well as an essay on his father by Dichter's son, Thomas, and a concluding chapter by Gerd Prechtl, "The Austria of Which I Dream," in which the author quotes Dichter's dreams of Austria as "a teacher because it is less threatening and awakens less jealousy [than bigger countries]” (p. 203).
Much as the concluding chapter illustrates, this book is almost in equal portion about Austria as it is about Dichter. As an English translation, it will be of most use to English-speaking scholars who are interested in the relationship between Dichter and the country that had essentially evicted--if not persecuted and killed--many of its great scientists following the Anschluß to National Socialist Germany. However, the book should also prove to be of great interest to scholars in advertising and motivational research who are looking for a well-researched, interesting study of Dichter. Finally, as Prechtl points out in his introductory essay, Dichter stands among those successful Austrian emigrés whose careers flourished in the United States, such as "Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Peter Drucker, Paul Lazarsfeld, Bruno Bettelheim, Paul Watzlawik, and Rudolf Ekstein" (p. 13), a context that makes this book of great interest to historians studying the life of European emigrants in North America.
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at: https://networks.h-net.org/h-german.
Citation:
Joseph W. Moser. Review of Kreuzer, Franz; Prechtl, Gerd; Steiner, Christoph, A Tiger in the Tank: Ernest Dichter: An Austrian Advertising Guru.
H-German, H-Net Reviews.
June, 2009.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23795
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. |