Episode 164: Something On Which You Can Depend

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Knowing the cost of what advertisers spend to get your attention is not the full story. For that, you really need to appreciate the value that attention is worth to those that hire those ad men. And that is Episode 164: Something On Which You Can Depend.

In this episode, I read from: Upton Sinclair's novel A World To Win; Simon Winchester's book The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom; an article by Bryan Many-Goose (alright, alright: Menegus) titled "What Am I Worth to Advertisers? My Obsessive Quest to Put a Price on My Attention"; A Guardian article about cat posters invading a London Tube Station; Tim Wu's book The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads; and Edward Bernays' book Propaganda.

I play: Sydney Greenstreet's evil, repetitious, and irritating capitalist advertising character from the 1947 movie The Hucksters. Musically, I play: two from Lee Rosevere, first "Under Suspicion" and last "Tension"; and Podington Bear, who filled the Rosevere bread in the middle with "Skeptic". KMFDM backs Mr. Ceglowski in the opening, and Julie and Rolf and the Campfire Gang close with "Over the Rainbow".

Episode 163: The Sheer Amount of Space in Our Day

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Have you ever considered how much is spent befouling our attentions with ads? In other words, how much do people pay to get your attention? I'll examine an article that attempts to discover that in this Episode 163: The Sheer Amount of Space in Our Day.

In this episode, I read from Bryan Menegus' article, "What Am I Worth to Advertisers? My Obsessive Quest to Put a Price on My Attention." Again, I'll conclude with my take on his test in the next episode.

I play: Bill and Ted reading each others' minds; and et doing a perfectly named tune "A Song of Sadness" (another tune which is, once again, difficult to find on the intertubes), something to back the rectangles in our hands and lives, no doubt. I open with a new intro with Matt Stoller backed by KMFDM, and close with Mistle Thrush.

[Well, Pim, how did things work?]