~ TWOATW-WBCOTL-MPOL-H/S/SI-AT-WS-SFAAC-WHCTAAVDWOB-WNEBOOLICETTEICB ~ There Was Once A Time When – Whether By Convention Or Technological Limitation – Many Parts Of Life – Home / School / Social Interaction – Among Them – Were Sanctuaries – Sheltered From Advertising And Commerce – We Have Come To Accept A Very Different Way Of Being – Whereby Nearly Every Bit Of Our Lives Is Commercially Exploited To The Extent It Can Be

~ WAAR-WQFRI-O-LLTALOOTWI ~ We Are At Risk – Without Quite Fully Realizing It – Of – Living Lives That Are Less Our Own Than We Imagine

~ ITHOACTUAIIT-TLAOT-A-WR-R-S-I ~ If The History Of Attention Capture Teaches Us Anything It Is That – The Limits Are Often Theoretical – And – When Real – Rarely – Self-Imposed

~ ARA-O-ATSOH-I-O-CTD ~ As Remarkable As – Our – Ability To See Or Hear – Is – Our – Capacity To Disregard

~ BTDAUIBTNC-MPPHNNTITG ~ Before The Democratic Age Ushered In By The Nineteenth Century – Most Political Powers Had No Need To Influence The Governed

~ TTSUTS-PM-ASRUT-EI-TSDODABSIPI ~ The Techniques Successfully Used To Sell – Patent Medicine – Are Still Routinely Used Today – Exotic Ingredients – The Supposed Degree Of Difference Afforded By Some Ingenious Proprietary Innovation

~ FAOSRATA-PF-STTCOMT-REITHP-AOTATAI ~ For All Our Secular Rationalism And Technological Advances – Potential For – Surrender To The Charms Of Magical Thinking – Remains Embedded In The Human Psyche – Awaiting Only The Advertiser To Awaken It

~ SA: CTDFPTOMNE-‘DE’+TRNDO-‘B’-CL-BCTI-VON-TSTSIAFOLI-+-TFDO-‘T’-A-ATTYMBIS-ANCKA-TFC ~ Scientific Advertising: Creating The Desire For Products That Otherwise Might Not Exist – “Demand Engineering” + The Relatively New Discipline Of – “Branding” – Creating Loyalty – By Creating The Impression – Valid Or Not – That Something Truly Set It Apart From Others Like It + The First Deployment Of – “Targeted” – Advertisements – Addressed To The Yet Mysterious But Increasingly Sought-After New Creature Known As – The Female Consumer

~ DWEBSNSMTTPWSTPBTTPEAA ~ Demand Was Engineered By Showing Not So Much That The Product Would Solve The Problem But That The Problem Existed At All

~ TMOPFFP ~ The Manipulation Of Public Fears For Profit

~ GFBTQOUOEQAAMOBD-ABTIPWTAATCCIW ~ Going Far Beyond The Question Of Usefulness Or Even Quality As A Matter Of Brand Development – Advertisers Began To Imbue Products With Traits And Associations That Consumers Could Identify With

~ CE ~ Celebrity Endorsements

~ TIV-‘S’-T-TAIHBAIEEFCAIR-IDSBBINFPO-GC-PW-ACRITSA-PSPHADS-BN-NSOACWDSITSOC-AIMIAUFTSC ~ Through Its Variously – “Scientific” – Techniques – The Advertising Industry Had Become An Increasingly Efficient Engine For Converting Attention Into Revenue – It Did So By Beginning Its Now Familiar Practice Of – Giving Consumers – Particularly Women – A Constantly Receding Ideal To Strive After – Perhaps Social Practice Had Always Done So – But Now – New Strategies Of Attention Capture Were Doing So In The Service Of Commerce – An Infinitely More Insatiable And Unyielding Force Than Social Convention

~ TMEBA-DNTTCYTMAC-B-RTCYTTINC-TBA-ITAENSMTPATC-AIMS-ICA-PC-WLCBIB-MI ~ The Most Effective Brand Advertising – Does Not Try To Convince You To Make A Choice – But – Rather To Convince You That There Is No Choice – True Brand Advertising – Is Therefore An Effort Not So Much To Persuade As To Convert – At Its Most Successful – It Creates A – Product Cult – Whose Loyalists Cannot Be Influenced By – Mere Information

~ BMONT-AAIM-C-WEWHBFMOAMS-TH ~ By Means Of New Technologies – Advertising And Its Master – Commerce – Would Enter What Had Been For Millennia Our Attention’s Main Sanctuary – The Home

~ R-‘S’-I-15MS-TAOTS-TPO-AEO-TBIGAWTHAEAUMBTBOEPATOA-BTP-RWHITAAEDNM ~ Radio – “Serial” – In – 15 Minute Instalments – The Ancestor Of The Sitcoms – The Power Of – An Entertainment Offering – To Bring In Giant Audiences Willing To Hear Advertising Effected An Unlikely Merger Between The Business Of Entertainment Producers And That Of Advertisers – Before This Point – Received Wisdom Had It That Advertising And Entertainment Did Not Mix

~ HPTFITEH-BWPTCOPOTDLWAAYU-R-STWFSWDSO-TWAHWLTD-TTATMCTHBS ~ Having Planted The Flag In The Evening Hours – Broadcasters Would Proceed To Colonize Other Parts Of The Day Laden With Attention As Yet Un-Reaped – Soon They Would Find Success With Daytime Soap Operas – Targeting Women At Home With Little To Do – Thanks To All The Modern Conveniences They Had Been Sold

~ TIO-PT-IAWAI-EF-TSD-BWWPAT-TNFOAEPLTTSSATSTEDCNHBC-ANDOSA-ESI-PT-W(ATALDR)AMROCA-AFDPT ~ The Invention Of – Prime Time – Insofar As We Are Influenced – Even Formed – To Some Degree – By Whatever We Pay Attention To – The Novel Fact Of An Entire Population Listening To The Same Show At The Same Time Every Day Could Not Help But Create – A New Degree Of Shared Awareness – Even Shared Identity – Prime Time – Was (And To A Lesser Degree Remains) A Massive Ritual Of Collective Attention – A Force Drawing People Together

~ BR-W-IIED-TOAAMOS-A-SABR-TOTBFOCI-IWTBFT-E-E-A-E-OT-P

~ Broadcast Radio – Was – In Its Early Days – Thought Of As A Miracle Of Science – A – Sacred And Blessed Realm – That Ought Be Free Of Commercial Intrusion – It Was To Be For The – Education – Entertainment – And – Enlightenment – Of The – Public

~ QMOAC-ATBTPAMAVOTA ~ Quantitative Measure Of Attention Capture – Allowed The Broadcaster To Put A More Accurate Value On The Airtime

~ C-MBTCOIF-B-ATHOHS-TUTSTSLATTTSCBJAU-INMS-TPAAHAUT ~ Choice – May Be The Cornerstone Of Individual Freedom – But – As The History Of Humanity Shows – The Urge To Surrender To Something Larger And To Transcend The Self Can Be Just As Urgent – If Not More So – The Greatest Propagandists And Advertisers Have Always Understood This

~ ATIPOTMSWBITH-SCASTIMBAFFGON-JWUWTAGBTBPT? ~ As The Immersive Power Of The Movie Screen Was Brought Into The Home – Some Could Already See That It Might Be A Force For Greatness Or Nothingness – Just What Uses Would The Attention Gathered By Television Be Put To?

~ TTTEOT-PIM-BWFTAWST ~ Thanks To The Erosion Of The – Public Interest Model – Broadcasters Were Free To Air What Suited Them

~ AI-OC-HASO-N ~ All Individualism – Of Course – Harbor A Strain Of – Narcissism

~ TAEI ~ Technology Always Embodies Ideology

~ TDTIOCOOAWSHTVOE ~ Technologies Designed To Increase Our Control Over Our Attention Will Sometimes Have The Very Opposite Effect

~ TTS ~ The Third Screen

~ TMEWOMABINWACPR-B-RWWIT-‘VR’-TI-RTVITFOM-BCRIIFMPT-‘E’-TBIR ~ The Most Effective Way Of Maintaining A Behaviour Is Not With A Consistent Predictable Reward – But – Rather With What Is Termed – “Variable Reinforcement” – That Is – Rewards That Very In Their Frequency Or Magnitude – Behavior Consistently Rewarded Is In Fact More Prone To – “Extinction” – Than Behaviour Inconsistently Rewarded

~ E-A-OOHGFOMSC-TAPO-C-I-TRCHA ~ Email – Arguably – One Of History’s Greatest Feats Of Mass Skinneresque Conditioning – The Almighty Power Of – Check-In – To Regularly Collect Human Attention

~ TPOTAMIR-FICCFCIQAE ~ The Path Of The Attention Merchants Is Risky – For It Can Call For Compromises In Quality And Ethics

~ T-C-I-C ~ The – Celebrity-Industrial – Complex

~ C-A-P-E ~ Celebrity-Attention-Product-Endorsers

~ PV ~ Pathology Voyeurism

~ HCE ~ Here Comes Everyone

~ AVAP ~ A Virtual Attention Plantation

~ TIOBM ~ The Importance Of Being Microfamous

~ TD-L ~ The D-List

~ TFSATMON ~ The Fourth Screen And The Mirror Of Narcissus

~ TAMMD-FNO-WTG-YSG-T-A-OC-TA ~ The Attention Merchant’s Manifest Destiny – From Now On – Whither Thou Goest – Your Smartphone Goes – Too – And – Of Course – The Ads

~ OTCC-TMVHR-INO-CAP-ILTB-OOCAMS ~ Over The Coming Century – The Most Vital Human Resource – In Need Of – Conservation And Protection – Is Likely To Be – Our Own Consciousnesses And Mental Space