Daily Inspiration Quote by Michael Schudson

Schudson’s line is a quiet demolition of advertising’s favorite myth: that it seduces us through brilliance. Instead, he argues its “wonders” depend on our inattention - the half-looking, half-listening state that defines modern life. The parenthetical “to the extent that they work at all” is doing real work here. It punctures the industry’s self-importance while also protecting the claim from overreach: advertising influences, but not magically, not universally, and not always.

The subtext is about power. Advertising doesn’t need to win a debate; it needs to become background noise that still manages to plant a cue. The “inattentive public” isn’t an insult so much as a sociological condition: people are busy, saturated with messages, and cognitively budgeted. That’s exactly why repetition, familiarity, jingles, logos, and default choices matter. Ads thrive not when we are persuaded like citizens, but when we behave like commuters - moving through environments designed to nudge, not convince.

Contextually, Schudson sits in a tradition pushing back against simplistic “hypodermic needle” theories of media effects. He’s skeptical of the idea that audiences are helpless, yet he’s equally skeptical of the comforting notion that we’re too savvy to be influenced. Advertising’s real achievement is more mundane and more pervasive: shaping what feels normal, what gets remembered, what seems available. Its genius is less about changing minds than about being there when we stop paying attention.