Week 6: Attention Merchants

Tim Wu, the writer of Attention Merchants, entertains the readers with the history of media and advertising. Wu’s study starts from the history of the World War II, when the Nazis developed propaganda, and ends with an observation of a current phenomenon, social media. Wu illustrates how much advertising has been involved in the various media. The part that advertising is taking on the existence of media is so big that it seems as if media can’t survive solely without advertising.

To be honest, I try to avoid advertising as much as I can in real life. However, as advertising major, I would like to defend advertising from some of the harsh criticisms.

Advertising is a necessity in a capitalist society. Advertising has always existed throughout the human history. People persuading others to come to watch a show, how good a certain product is, or join a certain group is all an advertising activity in a broader sense. In the capitalist society, advertising has become more important because the society sustains it self by continuous consumption. Advertising, in a capitalist society is an educator. Advertising informs consumers that a new product or service is available, and where and how the consumers can get it. If not for advertising, people will have a hard time following what kind of product Apple Company offers, or what an Apple watch is. People get prompt report on what kind of technology or entertainment is out there because advertising tells them.

The entertainment, news, and media contents are all a product of advertising. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter provide free account to users. On the social media feed, there are tons of entertainment contents that people provide for free. Music videos (MV) were only free to watch on television because of the commercials that air before and after the show, and the sponsors of the show. To watch MV on the Internet was not free a few years back. But with the rise of Youtube advertisement, and the fact that allowing some free stuff gets people to watch more advertising now made MV available for everybody. Netflix and Amazon Prime create their own exclusive shows to attract more consumers. People complain that advertising interrupts during their entertainment experience. However, it is the other way around. Advertisement is the main content of the media, and the others are just flamboyant lures. Nothing is free in the capitalist society. Advertising will remain as long as we sustain capitalism. The reason people hate advertising the most these days is because 1) there is a surplus of attractions, such as products, entertainments, and advertising, and 2) consumers experienced and learned what an advertising is, and what its intentions are.

The criticism and hatred, however, should rather be on media and technology. The technology now brings people to communicate faster, multi-task, and work efficiently. Web 2.0 has changed people to respond instantly. When Instagram first came out, people thought 1min video was fairly short. Now there is Snapchat. People are getting used to consuming shorter and instant contents. Teens are watching fewer movies because two hours of content is too long for them to consume. With multiple screens, people have hard time focusing on short content because they have multiple contents to consume at once. Recent media usage report showed that more people are watching television while using mobile devises at the same time. Shorter contents and multiple screens are a problem because it makes people to think fast and superficially. The more efficient and superficial people become, the more consumption oriented they become. Advertisers are using the best out of the current media environment. But that does not mean advertising should take all the criticism.