Vance Packard; Author of ‘The Hidden Persuaders’

Vance Packard, author of the best-selling “The Hidden Persuaders” and other books critical of consumer society, died Thursday. He was 82.

Packard, who lived on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, never emerged from a coma after a heart attack last week, said his daughter, Cindy Richmond.

Packard published his first book, “Animal IQ,” in 1950. But his biggest hit was “The Hidden Persuaders,” a 1957 book that examined how advertisers fueled consumer buying with subliminal images and symbols.

Packard’s book exposed so-called motivational researchers who encouraged advertisers to play on people’s subconscious desires for sex and status. He published an updated version in 1985.

In 1972, Packard published “A Nation of Strangers,” in which he criticized the loss of American family and community ties. Using census statistics and data on disconnected telephone numbers, he calculated that one in five Americans moved each year, leading to an increasingly rootless, alienated society.

Packard criticized American consumerism in other books, including “The Status Seekers” (1959), “The Waste Makers” (1960), “The Pyramid Climbers” (1962), “The Naked Society” (1964), “Our Endangered Children” (1983) and “The Ultra Rich: How Much Is Too Much?” (1989).

In reviewing “Our Endangered Children” for The Times the year it was published, Elaine Kendall described what she called Packard’s “proven formula” in his string of books:

“Choosing a disconcerting phenomenon from the wide spectrum of possibilities; collecting relevant material from both popular and professional journals; drawing up a bill of distressing particulars; viewing the results with alarm; and concluding with sensible suggestions for reversing the damage.”

A Pennsylvania native, Packard earned his bachelor’s degree from Penn State in 1936 while a reporter at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University the following year while writing a column for the former Boston Record.

From 1938 to 1942, he was a writer and editor for Associated Press Feature Service.

Packard is survived by his wife, Mamie Virginia, and three children.

Richmond said Packard’s remains were to be cremated, and his ashes scattered on Martha’s Vineyard, where he has lived part of the year since 1953.