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

The nature of our lives is at stake, claims Wu (Isidor & Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Univ. Law Sch.; The Master Switch) as he looks at how advertising has shaped people's lives. In 1833, Benjamin Day started selling broadsheets for a penny in New York City. His profit was not in the price of the newspaper, but rather in what he could charge for readers' attention, which for Day was the real "product" being sold. Wu shows how this trend continued through the advent of the first screen (movies), second screen (television), third screen (computers), and most recently the fourth screen (smartphones and wearable technology). From snake oil to Netflix, the author follows the rise of advertising, the shifts in technique, and the public response. Propaganda as advertising, "demand engineering" (creating the desire for merchandise that otherwise wouldn't exist), brand loyalty, targeted ads, and item placement are all touched upon. Wu further argues that consumer revolts have arisen before but never totally succeeded. His goal is for readers to be aware of how much attention they are giving away to others.