Fans will thrill to journey through the very best of MAD's fifty-plus years of takeoffs, complete with hundreds of spoofs of legendary ad campaigns, plus hilarious behind-the-scenes interviews with the Usual Gang of Idiots. Original.

That's what they always say in press releases about a new book. "Fans will thrill"; "The very best of" and other varied and well thought out terms that Wall Street and the major ad companies use to suck your money from your wallet and leave you cowering in a ditch somewhere, busted, broken and crying with nothing to show for it but bitter memories and heart-wrenching sobs.
Well buck up, little Cowboy cause now you can relive some of the twists of the knife MAD magazine has give the advertisers on your behalf over the last half century. Once more you can enjoy seeing Alfred E. Neuman sell soft drinks, and Sticky Peanut Butter and think about how many times we have been the target of serious ads showing the benefits of junk food or sugary snacks. And now the targets have reversed and MAD comes to our rescue. Sort of, in a really broad manner.
MAD has always been looked at in my house as a serious magazine filled with biting social commentary and much needed honest appraisal of society and life around us. Which probably explains why Charles Manson once ran screaming from our living room. But along with it insightful articles, MAD loves to poke fun at advertising. From TV and technology to dentistry and new cars, nothing has been safe or sacred to the writers and artists of MAD magazine.
Now, David Shayne has collected some of the greatest examples of MAD advertising over the last 50 years to show us the twisted, demented humor of the guys who made, "What? Me Worry?" a national phrase.
Along the way, you also get to see how the style and quality of the work and the fake ads themselves have evolved over the years with newer and better work in the various technologies used to create both the real ads and the fake ones MAD is so famous for.
It is quite interesting to see the simple, hand drawn and colored images of the 1950's and compare them to the computer generated finished work of today and wonder at the artists feelings about their work both then and now.
It is pretty easy to figure out the products attack….uhm… examined.. yea, examined in MAD's own send up of each one. The tough thing is to read this book and go to the store and not look for some of them.
You will find yourself reading a label in a supermarket someday and flash-back to the spoof ad you recently read and suddenly you are giggling like a maniac and people are moving their shopping carts away from you.
Or is that just me this happens to? This is a fun coffee-table book, one that can be easily set out before a fancy cocktail party without fear of some snob making a negative comment about parody humor or low-brow entertainment. If someone does, just hit them repeatedly about the head and upper body with the book. Since it is a Softcover, it won't hurt them enough for evidence in court and the book will remain is pretty good shape.