Media, the Second God

Tony Schwartz

Anchor Books, 1983 - Social Science - 169 pages

Examines the media's increasing influence in medicine, education, business, politics, and daily life

Contents

• The Age of Reception: 11
• The Essence of the New: 25
• How Commercials Work: 43
• A Case Study: 61
• Social Uses of Media: 79
• Work and Time: 101
• The New Grammar: 127
• The Incredible Expanding Telephone: 143
• Index: 163

Popular passages

Page 1 - Ask someone raised in the religious traditions of the Western world to describe God, and this, with idiosyncratic variations, might be the answer: "God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He is a spirit, not a body, and He exists both outside us and within us. God is always with us, because He is everywhere. We can never fully understand Him, because He works in mysterious ways.‎

Page 1 - ... always with us. Millions listen to the same networks, hum the same commercial jingles, share with soap-opera characters the testing of souls, the mystery of love and death, the agony of the sinful, and the triumph of the righteous. Stations transmit the same programs worldwide. In cramped apartments in Tokyo, people watch "Charlie's Angels." Lieutenant Columbo tracks down killers in Oslo, Rome, Madrid, and Bucharest. The whole world wanted to know who shot JR, of "Dallas.‎

About the author

 Tony Schwartz, 20th century master of electronic media, created more than 20,000 radio and television spots for products, political candidates and non-profit public interest groups. Featured on programs by Bill Moyers, Phil Donahue and Sixty Minutes, among others, Schwartz has been described as a "media guru," a "media genius" and a "media muscleman." The tobacco industry voluntarily stopped their advertising on radio and television after Schwartz's produced the first anti-smoking ad to ever appear (children dressing in their parents' clothing, in front of a mirror). The American Cancer Society credits this ad, and others that followed, with the tobacco industry's decision to go off the air, rather than compete with Schwartz's ad campaign.

When Marshall McLuhan met Tony Schwartz, he said he met "a disciple with twenty years prior experience!" Later, McLuhan and Schwartz shared the Schweitzer Chair at Fordham University.

Credited with the single most effective and talked about ad ever produced, Tony Schwartz created the Daisy Ad, as it has become known, to highlight the dangers of nuclear arms. It was used by the Johnson campaign in 1964 to clearly illustrate his position on the use of nuclear weapons. Considering the extensive discussion that the ad has sparked, it is remarkable that the ad ran only once.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Media, the Second God; Anchor books
• Author: Tony Schwartz
• Illustrated by: Nurit Karlin
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Anchor Books, 1983
• ISBN: 0385181329, 9780385181327
• Length: 169 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Media Studies