A tribute to and a lament for Marshall McLuhan continues. If he had lived Marshall would have been 100 on July 21, 2011. Join me in the countdown to his centennial, and an exploration of more of his observations on the way media work in the electric age in which we live.
Advertising
Have you ever noticed? (Part 1)
Marshall McLuhan (1970, age 59). You may have wondered why …
“Ads are more interesting than essay articles.”
Me (May, 2011, age 58). Now that you mention it.
McLuhan says the reason why is that ads fit better with the electric world in which we live. In the electric world of TV, radio, movies, and, now, the internet, e-mail, texting, facebook, and twitter, everything is coming at you at once, squeezing out narrative and points of view. Ads unlike the narrative essay that goes from past to present to future exist in “an inclusive present.” This may or may not be bumph. But you have to wonder as you flip through a magazine or watch TV why the ads are sometimes more interesting than the main attractions.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Culture Is Our Business, 1970, p. 112.
Cool PR?
Marshall McLuhan (1970, age 59). Thank your enemies.
“The only cool PR is provided by one’s enemies. They toil incessantly and for free.”
Me (May, 2011, age 58). For example?
Jack Layton. There cannot be many Canadians who do not now know who Jack Layton is. Thanks to his enemies tireless efforts to discredit him many voted NDP in the recent election.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Culture Is Our Business, 1970, p. 88.
The aggression of ads
Marshall McLuhan (March 7, 1977, age 65). Watch out!
“Madison Avenue is a very powerful aggression against private consciousness. A demand that you yield your private consciousness to public manipulation.”
Me (May, 2011, age 58). What is to be done?
Be aware. Look into the abyss, but be aware.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Letters of Marshall McLuhan, 1987, p. 177.
Bless advertising art.
Marshall McLuhan (1969, age 58). Wonderous to behold!
“Bless Advertising Art for its PICTORIAL vitality and verbal creativity.”
Me (March, 2011, age 58). Let’s take a look.
All advertising may not be art, but some definitely is. Would there were more.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Counter-Blast, 1969, p. 18.
Who’s your teacher now?
Marshall McLuhan (1969, age 58). Ads!
“The metropolis today is a classroom; the ads are its teachers.”
Me (March, 2011, age 58). What’s on the curriculum?
This is an idea McLuhan returned to many times, ads do far more teaching than selling. It’s easy to find some disturbing teaching in ads, which certainly increases ones concern about the lessons we pick up inadvertently in the marketplace. Here’s one that gently makes a case for consumerism as the path to the good life. Well, perhaps gentle is not the right word …
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Counter-Blast, 1969, p. 12
Will TV elect our next Prime Minister?
Marshall McLuhan (1970, age 59). Meet the new NBC and CBS.
“NBC and CBS could easily become the political ‘parties’ of the future, just as the New York Central and the Pennsylvania railroads were once the political parties of the nineteenth century.”
Me (March, 2011, age 58). The future is here…
CTV, Global, and the CBC are hard at work in the current Federal election in Canada. And so are the more traditional political parties with a little help from TV.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Culture Is Our Business, 1970, p. 52.
What’s real?
Marshall McLuhan (1970, age 59). The genuine fake!
“In art, the genuine fake, Rembrandt or Vermeer, is just as valid as the real thing because it provides the same new awareness or perception.”
Me (March, 2011, age 58). An observation McLuhan made about advertising …
When he said that advertising was getting so good you don’t have to buy the product to enjoy it.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Culture Is Our Business, 1970, p. 46.
The craftiness of TV.
Marshall McLuhan (1970, age 59). Its subliminal!
“TV is not only an X-ray ‘zerothruster’ or fire god like Zoroaster, but it is entirely subliminal in its impact, as is the case with all other new media.”
Me (March, 2011, age 58). Meaning?
It works on us in ways we are unaware that it is working. But how that actually happens was not Marshall’s business to discover. It is ours, if we choose to. If not, he has other ideas. For example
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Culture Is Our Business, 1970, p. 208.
The muzak of the eye!
Marshall McLuhan (1970, age 59). Ads!
“British sociologist D. G. MacRae says the reason why the huge potential of the ad world has not been tapped by his colleagues is that ‘we do not want our prejudices disturbed by knowledge.’ If ads disappeared, so would most of our information service environment – the Muzak of the eye.”
Me (March, 2011, age 58). Which invites the question …
How is our thinking affected by the information service environment created by ads? Everyone is interested in whether ads influence buying decisions. But what if their most influential effects are on other far more general and apparently unrelated things? Such as what we think about and the way we think?
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Culture Is Our Business, 1970, p. 200.
A lesson for ad men
Marshall McLuhan (1970, age 59). A fatal error.
“The TV sound track still yields the hot radio pitch, even in ads – a fatal error.”
Me (March, 2011, age 58). Judge for yourself.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, Culture Is Our Business, 1970, p. 86.