Alchemy

“Sutherland, the legendary Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, uses his decades of experience to dissect human spending behavior in an insanely entertaining way. Alchemy combines scientific research with hilarious stories and case studies of campaigns for AmEx, Microsoft and the like. This is a must-read.” – Entrepreneur, “Best Books of the Year for Entrepreneurs”

“This is a breakthrough book. Alchemy is wonderfully applicable to about everything in life. Furthermore, it is funny as hell.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan

“Alchemy, as Rory Sutherland’s title promised, turns words into gold. Veins of wisdom emerge regularly and brilliantly from these pages. Don’t miss this book.” – Robert B. Cialdini, author of the million-copy bestseller Influence

“So many of us are trained to focus on data and the logical, and Alchemy makes a great argument for the irrational. I think everyone could use a reminder that asking dumb questions, reframing old ideas, and, in turn, trying to create a bit of magic, can lead to unexpected solutions for some of our most difficult problems. Alchemy was a reminder of that and then some.” – Inc., “Great Books for Anyone Who Wants to Get Ahead in Life”

“The most recent, and the funniest book on the subject is by Ogilvy Vice Chair Rory Sutherland. Alchemy is both a book on human behavior and a rallying cry to stand up against the spreadsheet mafia dominating most government and corporate policies today. … Alchemy is full of examples of how human behavior runs contrary to the laws of economics from Sutherland’s work at Ogilvy.” – Forbes, “Best Books on Consumer Behavior to Help You in Business and in Life”

“Buy this book. I loved it. It’s full of great insights.” – MATT RIDLEY, bestselling author of The Rational Optimist and Genome

“BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT: wonderfully heretical, naughty, funny, and wise. Alchemy has furnished me with enough good stories and sage aphorisms to keep my lecturers to tired students going for another ten years.” – JULES GODDARD, London Business School

“The don of modern advertising.” – The Times (London)

“Rory Sutherland’s Alchemy is a deeply original book.” – ROBERT TRIVERS

“Sutherland is revelatory – and entertaining – in his anatomy of apparently paradoxical consumer choice in action. ” – The Times (London)

“Sutherland brings together complex theory with stories and plentiful humour to both captivate and entertain. It’s an important work for our era of apparent irrationality.” – The Spectator (UK)

Rory Sutherland is vice chairman of Ogilvy. His TED Talks have been viewed more than 6.5 million times. He lives in London.