Contents -- Prologue -- Everything changes, everything stays the same -- Part one In search of brand charisma -- Introduction -- Brands: thorny, gnarly, ever-so-twisty -- The brand organic -- Brands must behave, must woo -- 'Same difference': the counterpoint brand -- Reframing: originality and busting it up -- Brand duality: consider your brand's Batman -- 'Lose the nipples': what's in a logo? -- 'Back in the day': nostalgia brands and the retro sell -- 'Yours digitally': brand charisma's second coming -- Sub-brand splendour -- Drop the 'The': what's in a name? -- Gross assumptions, crumby conventions and the Churchillian view -- You are your own mousetrap -- Part two In pursuit of the accelerated consumer -- Introduction -- We are ALL consumers -- In strangers we trust -- The age of the accelerated consumer -- The brand communication model: a bit like a time-travelling DeLorean -- Allow me to proposition you -- Through a glass clearly -- Colour me happy! -- Curve, contour and come-on: how persuasive is sexual persuasion? -- Truth, lies and advertising -- Irrational reasoning, magpie desire and the watch from outer space -- 'With great power...': advertising to our inner superhero -- The big H -- Buying wine, getting her to drink it and other Adland misdemeanours -- Part three Dawn of a media democracy -- Introduction -- 'Digital': what it is, what it isn't -- Web 3.0: regime change -- Transmedia... in a Tube card -- Is social media just a bit antisocial? -- A pop culture where everyone's invited -- The second fundamental: avoid launching ghost ships -- Mobile: the new dependency -- Teen alienation is so analogue -- Efficiency and effectiveness: fish with feet sidestep moving trees -- Shifting icons -- Ed Burns, TriBeCa and the film-making revolution -- The fabric of things -- Epilogue - take comfort, 'nobody knows nothing'.

Acknowledgements -- The lists.