Episode 164: Something On Which You Can Depend

Play Now!

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".