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"Science Fiction is speculative fiction in which the author takes as his first postulate the real world as we know it, including all established facts and natural laws."
- Robert Heinlein
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| Compulsive Subsonics | ||
| An advertising agency works with every part of the audience's brain. |
In this classic 1950's story, the ad agency works hard to use every bit of technology available to manipulate the public.
| "They outlawed compulsive subsonics in our aural advertising - but we've bounced back with a list of semantic cue words that tie in with every basic trauma and neurosis in American life today. |
| From The Space Merchants,
by Frederik Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth). Published by St. Martin's Press in 1952 Additional resources -
|
When you read this story, you'll be amazed at how well it predicts the future of mass market advertising. At the time the book was written, ad agencies had only been around for about 100 years; the first American advertising agency was opened in 1941. The first big "ad blitz" was organized by none other than P.T. Barnum, who created so much hoopla with newspaper ads, handbills and broadsides advertising the appearance of Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale" to America, that she was met at the docks by 30,000 New Yorkers.
The first great American brands were created at this time; the first advertisement for Smith Brother's Cough Candy (drops) appeared in a Poughkeepsie, New York paper in 1851. (Historical note: the two brothers in the illustration are named "Trade" and "Mark.") Today, we are saturated with brand names; but in the mid-1800's, everything people bought was generic. You went to the grocery store and bought flour, salt, sugar and soap; the grocer removed it from a larger, anonymous package and wrapped it for you. You never knew the manufacturer.
The history of advertising is a great reminder of how much has changed in the last 100 years.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Space Merchants
More Ideas
and Technology by Frederik Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)
Tech news articles related to The Space Merchants
Tech news articles related to works by Frederik Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)
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| 'Courier Commons' By Tomorrow Lab, From Karl Schroeder (and Bruce Sterling?) |
| Mouth Haptics Invented By Frederik Pohl In 1965, CMU Now Has Prototype |
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'THE red tennis robot scooted desperately across the court...'
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
'Do you know what window washing used to cost by the hour?'
'Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.'
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
'From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips...'
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.'
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
