1920s advertising executives styled themselves capitalism’s new priestly class.

Evidence

With its acquired wealth and grandeur, the industry began to see itself differently, in a way more attuned with its origins, which its cloak of science had served to conceal. No, not the origins in patent medicine, redolent of swindle and charlatanism—that lineage advertising was glad to have disowned, even if it would never disown the methods. Rather, it was now that advertising began to see itself in the image of the original propaganda body, the Church; its work as a mission; and its masters as capitalism’s new priestly class. The agencies were educating the masses, doing a sort of missionary work on behalf of the great new companies fulfilling the broadest needs and deepest desires of the nation. President Coolidge captured the new image in a 1926 speech: “Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade. It is a great power that has been entrusted to your keeping which charges you with the high responsibility of inspiring and ennobling the commercial world. It is all part of the greater work of regeneration and redemption of mankind.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 248

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s attention-industry theme: advertising reframed as sacred mission is a recurring justification pattern, parallel to how tech platforms later styled themselves saviors/pastors. Also echoes Coolidge-era religiosity framing I’ve seen in other economic histories of the 1920s. — connects to: Each era produces its own distinct capitalist class; Advertisers claimed their craft had become a predictive science by 1923 — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 178
• SEED: Could grow an essay on how attention industries justify extraction through quasi-religious mission language, from Coolidge’s ‘spiritual side of trade’ to tech’s ‘connecting the world.’
• DEFINE: Captures the core move of defining advertising as a missionary ‘priestly class’ — the self-conception that powered its rise.

Broader Connections

• Advertisers claimed their craft had become a predictive science by 1923 #corroborates (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 178
• Each era produces its own distinct capitalist class #expands (0.75)