https://paleofuture.com/blog/2023/1/11/marshall-mcluhan-on-the-future-of-ads-and-the-internet Front Page Paleofuture Blog Paleofuture+ Free Newsletter Pretty Pictures Shop About Sign In My Account [6] Welcome to the Paleofuture blog, where we explore past visions of the future. From flying cars and jetpacks to utopias and dystopias. [ ] Paleofuture The history of the future 0 [ ] Jan 11 Jan 11 Watch a Cranky Marshall McLuhan Explain the Future of Ads and the Internet in 1966 Matt Novak 1960s [marshall] Marshall McLuhan interviewed on the CBC in 1966 Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian media scholar best remembered for declaring the "medium is the message," gave a fascinating interview in 1966 where he looked at the present role of advertising and information services. McLuhan made some predictions about what the future held, and he was fairly accurate, even if he ended the interview by proclaiming he was resolutely opposed to "all innovation and all change." The interview by Canadian journalist Robert Fulford, which appeared on Canadian TV for the program "This Hour Has Seven Days," begins with McLuhan talking about a new societal obsession with safety and "a sudden awareness that things have effects." McLuhan goes on to argue that TV was a participatory medium and dissects why people actually look at the ads they seen in daily life while reading magazines and newspapers. "Do you know that most people read ads about things they already own? They don't read ads to buy things, but to feel reassured that they have already bought the right thing. In other words, they get huge information satisfaction from ads far more than they do from the product itself," McLuhan explained. "Where advertising is heading is quite simply into a world where the ad will become a substitute for the product and all the satisfactions will be derived informationally from the ad and the product will be merely a number in some file somewhere," McLuhan continued. There are a lot of different ways to interpret McLuhan here, especially when it comes to the "product" being "merely a number in a file somewhere." Is this a way to talk about digital goods? Or, as another way to look at it, is the ad the product to begin with? To McLuhan's way of thinking, people weren't buying a magazine of articles in the 1960s that just so happened to include advertising. They were buying a magazine with articles and the ads were part of the product being desired and consumed. The most obvious way to look at how that happens today would be the consumption habits of Instagram users. So-called influencers are essentially producing ads of themselves enjoying products or experiences, even if they're not labeled as such. But McLuhan wasn't done there. He also explained how the future of information gathering was going to change, three years before the ARPANET, the precursor to the modern internet, would come online in 1969. "Instead of going out to buy a book that has had five thousand copies printed, you will go to the telephone and describe your interests, your needs and your problems," McLuhan explained. "You might say that you are working on a history of Egyptian arithmetic. You know a bit of Sanscrit, you are qualified in German, and you are a good mathematician. They said, it will be right over. And they at once, Xerox, with the help of computers from the libraries of the world, all the latest material just for you personally, not as something to be put out on a bookshelf. They send you the package as a direct personal service," McLuhan said. "This is where we are heading under electronic information conditions. Products are increasingly becoming service. This is where we're heading under electronic information conditions--products increasingly are becoming services," McLuhan continued. Of course, McLuhan's prediction is already quite antiquated, very few people are making physical copies of books with a copy machine, and there's rarely a need to call a central librarian when people have search engines like Google at their disposal. But you get the idea. The predictions from McLuhan weren't made in a vacuum. There were others who made similar predictions in the early 1960s, like this Our New Age comic strip by Athelstan Spilhaus in 1962, showing how people would be able to access information from libraries using computers. [our] The February 17, 1962 edition of the Sunday comic strip Our New Age by Athelstan Spilhaus (Novak Archive) The interviewer, Robert Fulford, closes by asking McLuhan what kind of world he'd rather live in. "Is there a period in the past or a possible future you'd rather be in?" Fulford asked. "No, I'd rather be in any period at all as long as people are going to leave it alone for a while. Just let go. Just leave it now," McLuhan said. "But they're not going to, are they?" Fulford said. "No, so the only alternative is to understand everything that's going on, and then counter and neutralize it as much as possible, turn off as many buttons as you can, and frustrate them as much as you can," McLuhan said. And then McLuhan got certifiably grumpy. "I am resolutely opposed to all innovation, all change, but I am determined to understand what's happening because I don't choose just to sit and let the juggernaut roll over me," McLuhan explained. "Many people seem to think that if you talk about something recent you're in favor of it. The exact opposite is true in my case. Anything I talk about is almost certainly to be something I'm resolutely against. And it seems to me the best way to oppose it is to understand it and then you know where to turn off the button," McLuhan continued. Marshall McLuhan lost his battle with the future in 1980. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Love Paleofuture? Subscribe to Paleofuture+ to get exclusive articles, rare videos, and access to a members-only chat. * Monthly * Yearly Paleofuture+ $5.00 Every month $50.00 Every year Paleofuture's members-only area Sign Up Sign Up Matt Novak 1960s Marshall McLuhan, ads, advertising, advertorials, scholars, public intellectuals, media studies Facebook0 Twitter Reddit Tumblr Pinterest0 0 Likes Matt Novak Website Leave a comment Matt Novak Website [Paleofutur] [1959] Click the 1959 Roomba above to see more Pretty Pictures(tm) from the Paleofuture. 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