Interview: Alan Middleton, On the Line with Joseph Planta (thecommentary.ca)

Alan Middleton

Monday, 21 July 2008

Marketing guru Alan Middleton, also executive director of the Schulich Executive Education Centre at York University, talks to Joseph Planta about a new book he has written with Jeannette Hanna, Ikonica: A Field Guide to Canada's Brandscape (Douglas & McIntyre, 2008).

Ikonica: A Field Guide to Canada's Brandscape/I> by Jeannette Hanna and Alan Middleton. (Douglas & McIntyre, 2008)

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Ikonica

You will need the Real Player to listen to the interviews. If you don't have it, you can download it at http://www.real.com.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line. This is THECOMMENTARY.CA.

For the first time, Canada's storied and colourful brandscape is examined in a very stylish, highly readable, and endlessly fascinating book, Ikonica. Its authors, Jeannette Hanna and Alan Middleton have done a remarkable job showing us the many brands, logos, and slogans we've grown up with, which have lingered in our consciousness, and entered the national vernacular. Also, they feature some interesting interviews with a great list of business and cultural figures who shed light on what works and what doesn't, giving the reader a valuable insight on brands, and inevitably the country. Alan Middleton joins me now. He's a marketing commentator and is executive director of the Schulich Executive Education Centre at York, where he's also an assistant professor. In 2005 he was inducted into the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends. The book's full title is Ikonica: A Field Guide to Canada's Brandscape. It is $34.95 from Douglas & McIntyre. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Alan Middleton; Good morning, Professor Middleton.