13 Facts About Vance Packard

Vance Oakley Packard was an American journalist and social critic.

Vance Packard was the author of several books, including The Hidden Persuaders and The Naked Society.

Vance Packard was born on May 22,1914, in Granville Summit, Pennsylvania, to Philip J Packard and Mabel Case Packard.

Vance Packard identified himself as a "farm boy" throughout his life, although he moved to State College and in later life lived in affluent areas.

Vance Packard graduated in 1936, and worked briefly for the local newspaper, the Centre Daily Times.

Vance Packard earned his master's degree at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1937.

Vance Packard became a reporter for the Associated Press around 1940, and in 1942, joined the staff of The American Magazine as a section editor, later becoming a staff writer.

That periodical closed in July, 1956, and Vance Packard became a writer at Collier's.

Vance Packard was a critic of consumerism, which he viewed as an attack on the traditional American way of life.

Vance Packard identified eight "compelling needs" that advertisers promise products will fulfill.

Vance Packard compared a recent Great Society initiative by then-president Lyndon B Johnson, the National Data Bank, to the use of information by advertisers and argued for increased data privacy measures to ensure that information did not find its way into the wrong hands.

Vance Packard was married to Virginia Matthews; they had two sons and a daughter.

Vance Packard died in 1996 at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital.