From the moment Subaru of America - in an effort to counter flagging car sales - set out to select a new agency, throwing its $75 million account open to competition, Randall Rothenberg, formerly advertising columnist of the New York Times, was there. Out of his unprecedented access to the car company and the agency it ultimately chose - Wieden & Kennedy - Rothenberg brilliantly details the people, passions, politics and processes of advertising. He takes us into a world composed equally of chaos and comedy, terror and triumph, a world where sober M.B.A.'s clash with Hollywood egos, creative mavericks with research pundits - all of them in pursuit of the Holy Grail: an image that will live as long as Volkswagen's "Lemon" ad, a slogan as memorable as "Please don't squeeze the Charmin.". In a narrative alive with authenticity and genuine color, Rothenberg takes us inside Subaru - the darling of Wall Street in the early eighties but ravaged in the recession of the early nineties. He enters as well the inner sanctums of the six major agencies that competed to top Subaru's once-successful slogan, "Inexpensive, and built to stay that way." He watches and listens as the Subaru executives argue about the proposals submitted. And once the winning agency is chosen, he describes every crucial twist and turn of its frenetic, all-out efforts to invent and then recharge a campaign - TV commercials, print ads, slogans - that will win the approval of Subaru executives and disgruntled car dealers.