Michael Schudson Quotes

• Sales may lead to advertising as much as advertising leads to sales.

  Michael Schudson

  May, Advertising, Retail Sales

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.29, Routledge

  45 Copy quote

• The story of journalism, on a day-to-day basis, is the story of the interaction of reporters and officials

  Michael Schudson

  Stories, Journalism, Bases

  8 Copy quote

• Different groups are differentially vulnerable to advertising; and their vulnerability varies not so much with the character or quantity of advertisements as with the informational resources they can claim by age, education, station in life, and government guarantees of consumer protection.

  Michael Schudson

  Character, Government, Age

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.16, Routledge

  6 Copy quote

• Even if, as is generally the case, everything that the ad says about the product is scrupulously honest, or at any rate scrupulously avoids outright dishonesty, the implication of the direct address of most commercials - that the announcer speaks with the viewer's welfare at heart - is fraudulent.

  Michael Schudson

  Heart, Addresses, Honest

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.33, Routledge

  6 Copy quote

• The effectiveness of advertising depends on the amount and kind of product information available to consumers... advertising will be more successful the more impoverished the consumer's information environment.

  Michael Schudson

  Successful, Effectiveness, Information

  6 Copy quote

• American advertisers rely on 'essentially illogical' approaches to determine their advertising budgets.

  Michael Schudson

  Advertising, Approach, Determine

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.17, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• It should be apparent that the belief in objectivity in journalism, as in other professions, is not just a claim about what kind of knowledge is reliable. It is also a moral philosophy, a declaration of what kind of thinking one should engage in, in making moral decisions. It is, moreover, a political commitment, for it provides a guide to what groups one should acknowledge as relevant audiences for judging one's own thoughts and acts.

  Michael Schudson

  Philosophy, Commitment, Thinking

  Michael Schudson (1981). “Discovering The News: A Social History Of American Newspapers”, p.8, Basic Books

  6 Copy quote

• Chances are that neither the client nor the agency will ever know very much about what role the ad has played in sales or profits of the client, either short-term or long-term.

  Michael Schudson

  Business, Agency, Long

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.108, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• Buy me and you will overcome the anxieties I have just reminded you of

  Michael Schudson

  Anxiety, Overcoming, Advertising

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.6, Routledge

  8 Copy quote

• It is very likely that many firms spend more on advertising than, for their own best interests, they should.

  Michael Schudson

  Advertising, Should, Interest

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.18, Routledge

  11 Copy quote

• Objectivity, in this sense, means that a person's statements about the world can be trusted if they are submitted to established rules deemed legitimate by a professional community. Facts here are not aspects of the world, but consensually validated statements about it.

  Michael Schudson

  Mean, Objectivity, Community

  Michael Schudson (1981). “Discovering The News: A Social History Of American Newspapers”, p.7, Basic Books

  4 Copy quote

• If advertising is not an official or state art, it is nonetheless clearly art.

  Michael Schudson

  Art, Advertising, States

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.222, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• Advertising generally works to reinforce consumer trends rather than to initiate them.

  Michael Schudson

  Trends, Advertising, Consumers

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.207, Routledge

  21 Copy quote

• Most criticism of advertising is written in ignorance of what actually happens inside these agencies.

  Michael Schudson

  Ignorance, Agency, Criticism

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.45, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• Expensive, well-executed, and familiar ads convince the investors, as nothing in the black and white tables of assets and debits can, that the company is important and prosperous.

  Michael Schudson

  Black And White, Important, Tables

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.14, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• The power of ads rests more in the repetition of obvious exhortations than in the subtle transmission of values.

  Michael Schudson

  Subtle, Repetition, Obvious

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.28, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• Advertisements ordinarily work their wonders, to the extent that they work at all, on an inattentive public.

  Michael Schudson

  Advertising, Wonder, Advertising Agencies

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.26, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• Advertising is much less powerful than advertisers and critics of advertising claim, and advertising agencies are stabbing in the dark much more than they are practicing precision microsurgery on the public consciousness.

  Michael Schudson

  Powerful, Dark, Agency

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.13, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• If there are signs that Americans bow to the gods of advertising, there are equally indications that people find the gods ridiculous. It is part of the popular culture that advertisements are silly.

  Michael Schudson

  Silly, People, Culture

  Michael Schudson (2013). “Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its Dubious Impact on American Society”, p.242, Routledge

  16 Copy quote

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