A tribute to and a lament for Marshall McLuhan. Five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, I present one of McLuhan’s observations and talk about its relevance today. 300 ideas. 300 days. 300 posts.
Business
Movies will conquer the world for Uncle Sam.
Me (November, 2010, age 58). Hollywood and globalization.
It seems obvious that Hollywood is a great training ground for globalization. To see what the western world is all about all you have to do is buy a ticket to a Hollywood film. If so then the battle for and against globalization will be won on the media battlefield. For globalization to triumph Hollywood movies must beat TV and the internet. But then maybe he’s wrong or perhaps the movie has moved on.
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Marshall McLuhan (1964, age 52). Of course …
“the film medium … [is a] monster ad for consumer goods.”
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“The movie, as much as the alphabet and the printed word, is an aggressive and imperial form that explodes outward into other cultures.”
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Cordially, Marshall and Me
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Reading
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, p. 294-295.
The power of print is greater than you think!
Me (October, 2010, age 58). The curious case of the death of the book.
Of all Marshall McLuhan’s prophecies perhaps the most controversial in his time, and ours, was the death of the book. And he was not shy about who he mentioned it to. Most famously, in a speech to publishers in New York City in the sixties, the story goes, McLuhan decided to let his audience in on the news that they wouldn’t be around in the future, at least not in the business of publishing hard-cover books. Afterwards, the audience was so impressed by his talk one of the publishers offered him a book deal for – you guessed it – Understanding Media. Yet it is often forgotten that McLuhan also believed that the powers created by the book would long outlive their creator, which is not as good a story, but may in fact be more likely to be true. And perhaps there is for this reason less need to run for cultural cover as the internet continues to play havoc with newspapers, magazines, and of course the poor old book.
Marshall McLuhan (1964, age 52). The book may be dead but not the book bred!
“Those who panic now about the threat of the newer media and about the revolution we are forging, vaster in scope than that of Gutenberg, are obviously lacking in cool visual detachment and gratitude for that most potent gift bestowed by on Western man by literacy and typography: his power to act without reaction or involvement. It is this kind of specialization by dissociation that has created Western power and efficiency. Without this dissociation of action from feeling and emotion people are hampered and hesitant. Print taught men to say, “Damn the torpedoes. Full steam ahead!”
As illustrated, for example, here:
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, p. 178.
How the ads made the product disappear
Marshall McLuhan (1964, age 52). Of course, it’s obvious …
“The continuous pressure is to create ads more and more in the image of audience motives and desires. The product matters less as the audience participation increases. An extreme example is the corset series that protests that “it is not the corset that you feel.” The need is to make the ad include the audience experience.”
Me (October, 2010, age 58). Yes or no?
I hesitate to show these examples of the product and audience response as one. But in the interests of exploring the continuing value of McLuhan’s thinking, here goes:
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, p. 226.
What the ads learned from the movies.
Marshall McLuhan (1964, age 52). Of course, it’s obvious …
“When the movies came, the entire pattern of American life went on the screen as a nonstop ad. Whatever any actor or actress wore or used or ate was such an ad as had never been dreamed of. … The result was that all ads in magazines and the press had to look like scenes from a movie. They still do. But the focus has had to become softer since TV.”
Me (October, 2010, age 58). Yes or no?
Today the focus has softened so much that the ad has been re-woven into the movie. It’s called “product placement.” Instead of Clark Gable taking off his shirt to reveal an undershirt and everyone runs out to buy one, and the movie makers are surprised, Brad Pitt opens the fridge and guess what’s sitting there – a coke. And what do you order later on at the refreshment stand because you’re feeling thirsty? A coke.
And nobody’s surprised, least of all the movie makers who charged Coca Cola a sizable fee for coke’s appearance in the scene. Despite its historical roots in the movies not everyone is a fan of product placement. The director John Lynch for example:
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Cordially, Marshall and Me
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Reading
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, p. 231.
Does this make you laugh?
Marshall McLuhan (1964, age 52). Of course, it’s obvious that …
“Will Rogers discovered years ago that any newspaper read aloud from a theatre stage is hilarious. The same is true today of ads. Any ad put into a new setting is funny. This is a way of saying that any ad consciously attended to is comical.”
Me (October, 2010, age 58). Yes or no?.
Today the modern day Wills Rogers – Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report), Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) and Rick Mercer (The Rick Mercer Show) – have rediscovered the humour in the news. But that is to digress. The question is whether McLuhan is right about the humour of ads placed in a new setting. Here for your conscious attention in the new setting of this blog is a classic Kodak ad from the 1960s. Are you laughing yet?
Cordially, Marshall and Me
P.S. Me – He did say any ad.
Reading
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, p. 228.
Does this make you uneasy?
Marshall McLuhan (1964, age 52). You are being programmed.
“Many people have expressed uneasiness about the advertizing enterprise in our time. To put the matter abruptly, the advertising industry is a crude attempt to extend the principles of automation to every aspect of society. Ideally, advertising aims at the goal of a programmed harmony among all human impulses and aspirations and endeavors.”
Me (October, 2010, age 58). Yes or no?
Here for your uneasy consideration are two ads aimed at the goal of programmed harmony: one for girls and one for boys. Be careful who you show them to.
For the girls:
For the boys:
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, p. 227.
Are you being brainwashed by ads?
Marshall McLuhan (1964, age 52). That’s science for you.
“Ads seem to work on the very advanced principle that a small pellet or pattern in a noisy, redundant barrage of repetition will gradually assert itself. Ads push the principle of noise all the way to the plateau of persuasion. They are quite in accord with the procedures of brainwashing.”
Me (October, 2010, age 58). Yes or no?
Here for your consideration is a classic Dr. Pepper ad from the 1960s. A constant barrage of noise if I’ve ever heard one. The formula for success being – repeat 20 times an evening before bedtime. Do so until you can order a Dr. Pepper without thinking about it. Charge!
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Cordially, Marshall and Me
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Reading
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, p. 227.
Is the ad so good you don’t need to buy the product?
Marshall McLuhan (1965?, age 54). Congratulations!
Before I begin I want to say something. As advertisers, as artists, I want to congratulate you. Today, thanks to your achievements – because of the totally involving, participative nature of ads – people can enjoy the product without having to buy it.
Me (October, 2010, age 58). Yes or no?.
I can’t remember where I read about McLuhan saying this, but I think it was in one of the biographies, a reference to a speech he made in New York to a Madison Avenue crowd in the mid 1960s. But that’s not important. The important question is whether it’s true. Can ads allow you enjoy the product without having to buy it? Here is a Pepsi ad from the 1960s which suggests McLuhan was closer to the truth than you first might have thought.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, p. 226.
Marshall at the crystal ball.
Marshall McLuhan (February 25, 1965, age 54). What’s in and what’s out.
“Professor McLuhan, how can you say, clotheslines, seams in stockings, books and jobs are all obsolete?
“Clotheslines, seams in stockings, books and jobs are all obsolete.”
“Seriously now, isn’t that a clothesline I see in your backyard? Isn’t your current celebrity based on books?”
“Jane, these predictions follow from a close observation of the electric age in which we now live. Everything is in flux. But if you don’t like them, it doesn’t matter. Here’s another. Everything you thought you knew about children and their role in society is changing. For example, one day it will be a commonplace for children to have credit cards.”
“Really, an American Express Card for little Bobby?”
“Well, if you don’t like that idea …”
Me (September, 2010, age 58). What do you make of those apples?
These are just some of the predictions that showed up in the Life Magazine profile article on Marshall McLuhan by Jane Howard that I talked about yesterday. Squint and they all seem bang on. The question is what can we learn from them today? Perhaps that any one as perceptive as this is still worth listening to.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading
Jane Howard, “Oracle of the Electric Age,” Life Magazine, 25 February 1965, p. 92 and 96.
What if he’s right?
Marshall McLuhan (1964, age 52). Here are two short lists.
Three things that haven’t worked in America since the coming of TV:
Movies
National magazines
Comic books
And two things that thanks to TV Americans have discovered a new passion for:
Skin diving
Small cars.
Me (August, 2010, age 58). Now what?
I wonder if it’s too late to make a call to my broker?
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, pp. 417 and 421.