Fear is at the very heart of why we buy. ibid.
In less than fifty years children have become prized consumers, with British and American kids worth seven hundred billion pounds a year. Jacques Peretti, The Men Who Made Us Spend III
Children were targeted increasingly aggressively. ibid.
An entire shopping culture had been built around credit. ibid.
Now, we’re a nation of shoppers. ibid.
The procession of sandwich men was headed by the Semi-drunk and the Besotted Wretch, and each board was covered with a printed poster: ‘Great Sale of Ladies’ Blouses now Proceeding at Adam Sweater’s Emporium’. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
Ford’s ‘she doesn't know ...’ [ad nauseam] TV ad. It Was Alright in the 1970s II, Channel 4 2014
Come to Quark’s, Quark’s is fun, Come right now, Don’t walk, run. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s4e24: The Quickening, Quark’s advert
Well there’s absolutely nothing wrong. Nothing at all to worry about. Oh it’s something that happens to a lot of people who have been in advertising for a years. In layman’s terms, Peter, you’ve had an idea. Spitting Image s3e13, doctor, ITV 1986
Some of the tricks of the trade to ensnare potential customers … alter their perception of the product … in the highly lucrative business of politics, governments and selling ideologies. Neil Sanders, lecture Alternative View 5 conference, ‘The Art of Creating Reality’
Weasel words … ‘helps prevent dandruff’. ibid.
Products are sold on emotional content not a logical rational way. ibid.
What Edward Bernays called a third-party advocacy. ibid.
You must give the impression of wanting to effect some change. ibid.
Vague claims use colourful emotive phrases which are ultimately meaningless. ibid.
Brand identity … To fill the empty spaces … Brands become more than just a mark of quality, they become an invitation to a longed-for lifestyle. ibid.
Our economy is based on consumption, and advertising is the arm of creating artificial demand. Peter Joseph, interview Abby Martin, The Empire Files: Abolishing Capitalism, 2017
You’re right: we got three billboards out there; nobody’s put nothing out there since 1986 and that was Huggies. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ***** 2017 starring Frances McDormand & Woody Harrelson & Sam Rockwell & Abbie Cornish & John Hawkes & Peter Dinklage & Caleb Landry Jones & Kerry Condon & Darrell Britt-Gibson & Lucas Hudges & Amanda Warren et al, director Martin McDonagh, Red the man in renting office
Raped While Dying Still No Arrests? How Come, Chief Willoughby? ibid. billboards
I thought you only took on black dudes, Dixon. ibid.
You join the gang you’re culpable. ibid. Mildred to priest
We ain’t all the enemy, you know. ibid. black rozzer to Mildred
Social media influencers: the new digital superstars. The faces of an advertising revolution … How we’re being sold to is changing fast. Panorama: Million Pound Selfie Sell Off, BBC 2019
Influencers are now so in demand that talent agencies have now sprung up to represent them. ibid.
Cambridge Analytica: ‘An organisation that keeps pretty unsavoury company.’ The Great Hack, 2019, opening commentary, 2019
Your behaviour is being accurately predicted. So the ads that seem uncannily accurate that have to be eavesdropping on us are more likely to be evidence that they are targeting words. ibid. Professor David Carroll, Parsons School of Design
It began with a dream of a connected world. ibid.
These digital traces of ourselves are being mined into a trillion dollar a year industry. We are now the commodity. ibid.
Who was feeding us fear and how? ibid.
A company called Cambridge Analytica was also working on Project Alamo … claimed to have 5,000 data points on every American voter but it was invisible. ibid.
We turn now to the burgeoning scandal around voter profiling company Cambridge Analytica. ibid. Democracy Now
They wanted to discredit Trump, they wanted to discredit Brexit, and we were the vehicle for doing it. ibid. Cambridge Analytica dude
For over a hundred years Pepsi and Coke have been locked in a battle for the hearts and wallets of America. Employing brilliant minds and millions of dollars, Pepsi and Co-Cola used every weapon possible to destroy their opposition. Cola Wars, History 2020
Coca-Cola was the first Cola introduced to America, created in 1886 by a Pharmacist in Atlanta Georgia; Pepsi Cola came soon after in 1993 … By the 1970s Coke was the undisputed leader. ibid.
‘Advertising gimmick … The Pepsi challenge, and the world changed.’ ibid. observer
By the end of the 1970s the soft drinks market was growing fast fuelled by the intensifying Coke wars. ibid.
‘I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love’ … That in the early 1970s was one of the best-known pieces of music on television, not just here in Britain but on screens all around the world. To a certain generation it immediately conjures up memories of the young, collective, young appeal and a certain sugary drink. The Sound of TV with Neil Brand II: Advertising & Jingles, Coca-Cola Hilltop song, 1971
Shake n Vac 1981 … Cadbury’s Smash & the Martians 1973 … Channel 4 theme tune … ibid.
Allowing commercials to be shown on television for the first time: but the Act’s passing was not without controversy: both parliament and the press hotly debated whether adverts would have a detrimental affect on British culture. ibid.
US: The Chiquita Banana Song hit the airwaves in 1944 and aimed to teach consumers how to eat and store bananas which hadn’t been imported into America during the war. ibid.
Meow Mix 1984 US … Sugar Puffs 1976 UK … R White’s Lemonade 1973 … Hamlet’ cigars 1974 … Hoover’s bike ride 1973 … ibid.
On the other hand, almost the first act of the New Labour government was to erase from its programme one of the few outright commitments in it – to ban tobacco advertising. Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One motor racing billionaire, objected to the ban for the very good reason that by far the biggest beneficiary of tobacco advertising was Formula One motor racing. Ecclestone was a Tory. Why should such a brash tycoon have any influence on a Labour government? Answer – he had given £1 million to the Labour Party. A meeting was held in Downing Street and the outcome was obvious. It was plainly grotesque to continue with a policy that would damage so bountiful a benefactor. The policy was ‘revised’. Tobacco advertising on Formula One cars was permitted. Then someone accused the prime minister of corruption, so the Labour Party gave the money back to the millionaire. Its policy had changed for nothing. Paul Foot, Corruption: Dirty Business
Enter one of Britain’s wealthiest tycoons: Bernie Ecclestone, the pint-sized ringmaster of Formula One. With Blair’s approval, Ecclestone had secretly given new Labour a £1,000,000 donation. Just before the election. So he needed no introduction one day in October 1997 when he went to ask the prime minister for a favour. Bernie Ecclestone had a big request: new Labour were about to ban tobacco advertising from all major sporting events. Ecclestone wanted Formula One exempted, and for a small guy he must have been pretty persuasive, because after just one meeting with the prime minister, Tony Blair asked his health minister to do a U-turn and exempt Formula One ... They tried to cover up the details of what had happened. Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain, BBC 2007