![]() ![]() ![]() One of Barnum’s brilliant, almost genius-level aperçus, was that you could create news through advertising, and the advertising itself becomes newsworthy. In a world in which every truth is fungible, advertising begins to substitute for the news. ![]() But the process requires faith, “to teach you that after many days it shall surely return, bringing a hundred- or a thousandfold to him who appreciates the advantages of ‘printer’s ink’ properly applied.” The making of money in this formulation of the new gospel is a sign of blessedness, and instead of prayer to effect a particular outcome, we have advertising. How is this miracle achieved? First, through false superlatives and inflated rhetoric, e.g., “The world-famous _ is the greatest one ever seen.” Then, through repetition: if one asserts a claim often enough, the claim (true or untrue) achieves, as we say now, traction. “Put on the appearance of business, and generally the reality will follow.” And what follows then? Profit. From Lapham’s Quarterly, lessons on fame and advertising from The Life of P. ![]()
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