By Michelle Gamble-Risley and Michele Smith
3L Publishing, $14.95, 82 pages
SMASH: A Smart Girl’s Guide to Practical Marketing and Public Relations is a light read written by women experienced in Public Relations and Marketing. Authors Michelle Gamble-Risley and Michele Smith combined their skills to write a fun user guide to getting immersed into these industries.
While the information within SMASH is educational and professional, it is written in a conversational style. When reading, it can feel as though you are chatting with a girlfriend as opposed to working through a text book. Advice covers a wide variety of topics and the authors even discuss knowing when to acknowledge what you can and cannot do; a helpful aid in a competitive business world. Each subject discussed is broken into bite-sized pieces and labeled under fun categories, mostly dealing with food or other real-world topics.
While SMASH is helpful, I discounted some information because it seemed as if the authors didn’t take it themselves. They mention knowing when to hire graphic designers and not overuse fonts but the book cover has cliche clip art, cheesy photos and wonky fonts that do not match the tone of the book. The cover and layout of the book have no connection to the content within. Aside from the design disaster of the jacket, SMASH is a wonderful read to supplement marketing and PR knowledge. I’m sure much more can be expected from these ladies.
Sophie Sestero
[amazon asin=0578024004&text=Buy On Amazon&template=carousel]