Welcome to MSc Psychology of Advertising

Times Square billboards in New York

Reading List

Group One: Course Essentials

  • Seducing the Subconscious: The Psychology of Emotional
  • Influence in Advertising (Robert Heath)
  • Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman)
  • The Choice Factory (Richard Shotton)
  • Using Semiotics in Marketing (Rachel Lawes)
  • The Illusion of Choice (Richard Shotton)
  • Freakonomics: A Rouge Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Steven Levitt & Stephen Turner)
  • The Hidden Persuaders (Vance Packard)

Group 2: Really interesting background reading

  • The Pursuit of Pleasure (Lionel Tiger)
  • Why Does The Pedlar Sing? (Paul Feldwick)
  • Subliminal (Leonard Mlodinow)
    Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies in Flow Consciousness (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & Isabella Csikszentmihalyi)
  • No Logo (Naomi Klein)
  • The Attention Merchants (Tim Wu)
  • The Culting of Brands: When Customers Become True Believers (Douglas Atkin)
  • Status Anxiety (Alain De Botton)
  • The Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein)
  • Truth, Lies and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning (Jon Steel)
  • The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (Shoshana Zuboff)
  • World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech (Franklin Foer)

Group 3: Definitely worth a look, if you have time

  • Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction (Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner)
  • Why We Buy (Paco Underhill)
  • Black Box Thinking (Matthew Syed)
  • Brands in the Balance: Meeting the Challenges to Commercial Identity (Kevin Drawbaugh)
  • How to Use Advertising to Build Strong Brands (Ed: John Philip Jones)
  • The Buying Brian: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind (AK Pradeep)
  • Excellence in Advertising (Ed: Leslie Butterfield)
  • The Advertised Mind (Erik Du Plessis)
  • Research Methods and Statistics (Ian Walker) (As a basic intro/refresher)