The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads

Ed Savage, a high-caliber organizational development professional, and a colleague of his, developed the “Rule of Seventeen.” Their rule is: it takes seventeen repetitions for a message to sink in. I thought of this as I worked through The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu; especially in the section of the book that gave the British precursor to, and then the practice of, Nazi propaganda. The simple message: the more fully a messenger can smother an audience with a message, the more fully the message sinks in.Why is this book worth our time? I have three answers:#1 – This is a book that provides a sweeping yet substantive overview of the history of the ways attention merchants have sought out, and taken, our attention. (propaganda; advertising; posters, print, radio, television, web, mobile – sweeping!)#2 – This is a book that reveals the unending competition for our attention. The attention merchants are always hard at work, and very creative in the ways they “hide” what they are doing.#3 – This is a book that is really well written – utterly engaging.The Attention Merchants has so many highlight worthy passages. Here are a few:The question is always, what shall I pay attention to?Over the coming century, the most vital human resource in need of conservation and protection is likely to be our own consciousness and mental.… the attention industry, in its many forms, has asked and gained more and more of our waking moments, albeit always, in exchange for new conveniences and diversions, creating a grand bargain that has transformed our lives.The real purpose of this book is less to persuade you one way or the other, but to get you to see the terms plainly, and, seeing them plainly, demand bargains that reflect the life you want to live.As William James observed, we must reflect that, when we reach the end of our days, our life experience will equal what we have paid attention to, whether by choice or default. We are at risk, without quite fully realizing it, of living lives that are less our own than we imagine.The goal of what follows is to help us understand more clearly how the deal went down and what it means for all of us.As. Mr. Wu led us through the arrival of early, and then the next, and then the next, attention merchants, I made this list. The progression:• Preachers – the Church was the one institution whose mission depended on galvanizing attention• Snake Oil Salesmen• poster creators (Paris) — the posters were practically impossible to ignore.• British War Propaganda (when “Propaganda” was not a bad word)• The Ministry for Public Enlightenment and of Propaganda – Hitler, Goebbels, Leni Riefenstahl — total immersion of audience; “mandated” attention• from sponsors… to “ads”• from People to Instagram• from Magazines to Blogs to Twitter and Instagram• (the illusion of intimacy; the “pretend” self)• from posters to film and radio to television to computers to hand-held screens• and now, as part of the “revolt,” Netflix and binge watchingOne thing I noticed was the no-longer-with-us brands of yesteryear, like: Ipana, Rinso, and Zenith.And, here were my five lessons and takeaways from the book:#1 – First, pay attention to where your attention is going. Learn where it is going!#2 – Be wary of claims – all claims. (Who is the one who makes the claims? Why do they make such claims?)#3 – If the advertisers fail, then: who will pay for content (to be developed)?#4 – Schedule some digital Sabbaths; some intentional times to unplug.#5 – Commit to the “human reclamation project.”I am a loyal and appreciative fan of the work of David Halberstam, and I was pleased to see Mr. Wu refer to Halberstam’s classic The Powers that Be.And, this note: if you have ever wondered about “fake news,” you could read the sections of this book about snake oil salesmen. And, especially, the way that the Camel News Caravan successfully avoided all negative news about the health dangers of smoking.Should you read this book? Yes. If for no other reason than it is an utterly engaging book to read. But, reading this book will also make you a much more attentive and wary participant in where you place your eyeballs and where you allow your attention to settle. Getting that right can make a world of difference.

Writing histories of soft power – advertising, entertainment, persuasion, etc – has its difficulties. The historians of the hard variety of power can attach their arguments to a battle won, a piece of legislation passed, an election lost, something concrete where impact and significance seem clearer, more obvious. Yet the exercise of soft power is both commonplace and important because it often does shape our lives in a myriad of ways. But how do you prove such claims?Well Tim Wu has done a masterful job of tracking the story of a changing group of people, mostly men, who have sort to harvest the attention of publics and then sell that attention to a bevy of clients, mostly advertisers of one kind or another. The overall story isn’t new: there have been many fine histories of advertising over the years, and of its effect on culture and consumers. But Wu adds to the chronicle by focusing much of his argument on the modern incarnation of the attention merchants, no longer just newspaper publishers or admen or broadcast moguls but the ones who run the massively popular websites, say a Mark Zuckerberg, that wins our attention by offering an appealing service, a lot of supposedly ‘free stuff.’ Except of course it isn’t quite free, or rather it produces a saleable product, our eyes, that can generate huge profits. And the success of such enterprise shapes the whole character of the internet, just like the fact of advertising shaped first newspapers, then radio, and finally television news and entertainment.It’s the details of the story that especially intrigue. Thus I was taken by his bio of someone he calls the alchemist, Claude Hopkins, an adman early in the 20th century, whose successes and views had a major impact on the course of marketing throughout the next few decades. Wu has obviously done much research and thought hard about his findings. He writes well, very well indeed: the story flows easily, the arguments are clear, and his claims are always interesting, even if you might doubt his conclusions. So his suggestion a consumer revolt is brewing nowadays I liked, and hope he’s correct, but I doubt – there have been too many such claims in times past but we still live in marketing’s moment. Things change yes, styles of persuasion get updated, but the rule of the persuader persists: so the political consultant may have suffered some hard times in the past election cycle (because so many expensive campaigns failed abysmally), but the triumph of Trump (who doesn’t figure in the book) shows the huckster remains a potent figure in the American mix.The characters I found most intriguing here, like Hopkins, weren’t just selling our attention but manufacturing attraction, making products or people or causes appealing to the various markets and publics. Because in part our attention to the free stuff doesn’t mean our submission to the wishes of the elites. There’s another step, namely the crafting of the brand or the cause, making something that captivates or, apparently, fills a need. In short the real exercise of soft power came through the efforts of the adman, although now more the ad-maker and public relations counsel, what’s been called the persuasion industry. Sometimes I had the feeling Wu’s approach emphasized attention too much, attraction too little.But the real point is that Wu’s book provokes thought about a brand of soft power that is both ubiquitous and compelling. The only answer, unfortunately inadequate I think, is to get off the grid – don’t Facebook, don’t tweet, don’t watch television, then you can’t be sold. Except, of course, you then miss out on the free stuff.

this is a great read - traces the business of advertising back 100 years before internet, tv, radio to early print - news papers sold below cost, ended up peppering their front page with loads of annoying content - fast forwrd through same thing on radio, then TV (see Jerry Mander's 4 arguments for the elimination of TV for that too), to the intenret )see Shoshanna Zuboff's Suveillenace Capitalism for another take on this - also Jaron Lanier's works - prefer you are not a gadget, but 10 arguments for leaving social media also good) - this book analyses the background economics, reasons for the intrusion and mechanisms used to grab your eyeball time - essential reading (and a good way to avoid those google, facebook, tv adverts too:)

If you are completely unaware of the function, historically, of traditional media seeking to capture attention to sell for advertising, and it’s contempory form through social media, this is likely to be an interesting read. If you have heard of social media and are know some information about its development over recent years, it is a remarkably tedious and empty experience. It feels like a well written historical piece that has been overpromised and mistakenly promoted by the publisher, with no offence to the author who is clearly extremely knowledgeable and very articulate.

I loved this book. Extremely accessible and easy to read, it demonstrates over and over again how clever big business is at harvesting our time as well as our money. I devoted several hours from whatever time I have left on this earth to read it and do not begrudge Professor Wu a single second of it.

Really interesting take on how some of the structures in society came about, and as I've heard many times in my life, follow the money. This book has definitely made me more conscious of the attempts to grab my attention. Would recommend to those who struggle with finding time for the things they've always wanted to, although this isn't a self help book it definitely makes you think about how you end up wasting your time.

A history of the attention industry. It's shocking. This book contextualises the current internet/smart phone attention grab as merely the last in a long line of technologies used by commercial forces to capture and resell your attention. Together with Adler's Irresistible, and Carr's The Shallows, this is in my view essential reading to anyone that uses modern media technology.