Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CCwas a Canadian professor, philosopher, and public intellectual. His work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory, as well as having practical applications in the advertising and television industries. He was educated at the University of Manitoba and Cambridge University and began his teaching career as a Professor of English at several universities in the U.S. and Canada, before moving to the University of Toronto where he would remain for the...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth21 July 1911
CityEdmonton, Canada
CountryCanada
When producers want to know what the public wants, they graph it as curves. When they want to tell the public what to get, they say it in curves.
The modern Little Red Riding Hood, reared on singing commercials, has no objection to being eaten by the wolf.
Invention is the mother of necessities.
In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses.
Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century.
Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century.
Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort.
Ideally, advertising aims at the goal of a programmed harmony among all human impulses and aspirations and endeavors. Using handicraft methods, it stretches out toward the ultimate electronic goal of a collective consciousness.
Only puny secrets need protection. Big discoveries are protected by public incredulity.
Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials
Money is just the poor man's credit card.
Good taste is the first refuge of the non-creative. It is the last-ditch stand of the artist.
ONLY THE SMALL SECRETS NEED TO BE PROTECTED.THE BIG ONES ARE KEPT SECRET BY PUBLIC INCREDULITY.
We have become irrevocably involved with, and responsible for, each other.