How to get someone, somewhere, to do something. The job is using words, pictures, stories, and music to seduce strangers. In the industrial, mass-media, consumer economy of the past, the job was called advertising, and “Mad Men” did it. In today’s service-based, social media-focused, information economy, the job is called life, and everyone does it. Here’s how you can do it. And do it better.

The author says it best: “This book is for people like you and me. People who go to work and—using words, pictures, music, and stories—are expected to make s**t happen . . . to make the phone lines light up and the in-box fill up. Attract fans, friends, and followers. Make the cash register ring. Win the business. Close the deal. Sell something.” Joshua Weltman knows just how to do that, and teach others how to do it, too. An advertising creative director for more than 25 years and the Mad Men co-producer responsible for Don Draper’s credibility as an advertising genius, Weltman distills everything he knows about the art of persuasion into a playbook?of rules, principles, insights, insider anecdotes, and more, all tailored to the fast-changing life in the information economy. Weltman identifies the four elements of selling—one of which is behind everything from a national television campaign to an email blast. There’s the ad that makes people curious—want to know more? That creates a sense of urgency—limited time offer! That increases market share—why we’re unique, or just better. And the ad that protects margins—thank you for your loyalty. And then Weltman explains how to employ these strategies, including: the six words that win business; the four kinds of stories; what to do if your product sucks; why lying in an ad will never pay off; why information reduces doubt; how to think like a force-multiplier; why different is better than better; why to remove jargon and acronyms and reveal ideas and relationships. Advertising, Joshua Weltman argues, is a toolbox, not a tool, and used right it makes people happy. Seducing Strangers shows you how. “People often ask me questions, or ask my opinions, on or about the world of advertising. My stock response is ‘You know I play a fictional advertising executive, right?’ That’s usually used to cover the ignorance or stupidity of whatever I am about to say next. In the future I will simply refer them to Josh Weltman.” —from the Foreword by Jon Hamm

Just how deep will she fall after one night with a hot stranger? I’m Calla. I’m responsible. I plan. I’m cautious—always. Until I see the gorgeous stranger with the rugged hands and the dark mood. I want him. When he makes me an indecent proposal, I do something reckless. I say yes. I follow a man I don’t know to his hotel room and surrender my body. But he may be more than I can handle. Especially when I discover the shocking identity of my sexy stranger…

Though Lieutenant Tom Godfrey had never met Victoria Paget, he desired her. The late Captain Paget's stories of his wife--and her portrait--were enough to arouse his envy...and his lust. Now Tom's returned from the peninsula--and never expected to find the young widow in a bawdy house! Necessity had brought Victoria to the house of ill repute: it was the only place she could confront Tom, whom she suspected was responsible for her husband's death. But when she meets the virile soldier, his gallantry and her body's passionate response to him take her completely by surprise. What started as a one-night seduction may lead to much more...but will they still have a future when all their secrets are revealed?

Salvation from Cinema offers something new to the burgeoning field of "religion and film": the religious significance of film technique. Discussing the history of both cinematic devices and film theory, Crystal Downing argues that attention to the material medium echoes Christian doctrine about the materiality of Christ’s body as the medium of salvation. Downing cites Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu perspectives on film in order to compare and clarify the significance of medium within the frameworks of multiple traditions. This book will be useful to professors and students interested in the relationship between religion and film.

For two decades, Sébastien Tutenges has conducted research in bars, nightclubs, festivals, drug dens, nightlife resorts, and underground dance parties in a quest to answer a fundamental question: Why do people across cultures gather regularly to intoxicate themselves? Vivid and at times deeply personal, this book offers new insights into a wide variety of intoxicating experiences, from the intimate feeling of connection among concertgoers to the adrenaline-fueled rush of a fight, to the thrill of jumping off a balcony into a swimming pool. Tutenges shows what it means and feels to move beyond the ordinary into altered states in which the transgressive, spectacular, and unexpected take place. He argues that the primary aim of group intoxication is the religious experience that Émile Durkheim calls collective effervescence, the essence of which is a sense of connecting with other people and being part of a larger whole. This experience is empowering and emboldening and may lead to crime and deviance, but it is at the same time vital to our humanity because it strengthens social bonds and solidarity. The book fills important gaps in Durkheim’s social theory and contributes to current debates in micro-sociology as well as cultural criminology and cultural sociology. Here, for the first time, readers will discover a detailed account of collective effervescence in contemporary society that includes: an explanation of what collective effervescence is; a description of the conditions that generate collective effervescence; a typology of the varieties of collective effervescence; a discussion of how collective effervescence manifests in the realm of nightlife, politics, sports, and religion; and an analysis of how commercial forces amplify and capitalize on the universal human need for intoxication. Download the open access ebook here.