Advertisers converted hippie desires into consumer demand in peak acquisitive years.
Evidence
The most confident among the advertisers knew that the 1960s would not extinguish consumerism, for a simple reason: desire’s most natural endpoint is consumption, and advertisers, after honing their art for half a century, knew how to convert all manner of desire into demand for products. And young people’s desires were no exception. In fact, as one advertising executive, John Adams, put it in 1971, “They [the hippies] are in the peak acquisitive years, and their relative affluence enables them to consume goods and services at a rate unheard of for their age level.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 565
Categorization
- SHARE: A 1971 ad executive’s quote calling hippies ‘peak acquisitive’ is a sharp nerdy tidbit for anyone into advertising or counterculture history.
- XREF: connects to: The 1960s revolt chiefly released individual desires that advertisers could monetize. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 564; Early advertising converted human attention into cash by creating demand — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 76; Advertising manipulates consumers into wanting what they are made to want. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 258 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Post-war advertising shifted from selling products to manufacturing and commodifying desire.
#corroborates(0.80) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 119 - Early advertising converted human attention into cash by creating demand
#corroborates(0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 76 - Advertising compels consumers to identify with and demand the products imposed on them
#corroborates(0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 98 - Advertising manipulates consumers into wanting what they are made to want.
#complicates(0.72) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 258