Politics & Power Quote by Michael Schudson

Schudson lands a neat double jab at American consumer culture: yes, advertising functions like a civic religion, but it’s a religion everyone heckles while they attend service. The line works because it refuses the easy dystopian story that consumers are hypnotized dupes. Instead, he sketches a more believable modern posture: ironic compliance. People buy, repeat slogans, organize their desires through brands, then roll their eyes at the whole spectacle as if that eye-roll were proof of independence.

The “gods” metaphor is doing heavy lifting. It frames advertising not just as persuasion but as ritual authority: omnipresent, moralizing, and capable of shaping what counts as a good life. But Schudson immediately undercuts the divinity with “ridiculous,” turning reverence into parody. That tension is the subtext: advertising gains power precisely because it can survive mockery. In a media-saturated society, being laughed at isn’t disqualifying; it’s often the admission price for attention.

Context matters here: Schudson is writing as a sociologist of media and public life, pushing back against both industry triumphalism and critical-theory fatalism. His point isn’t that ads are harmless. It’s that popular culture has built-in antibodies - satire, camp, ad-busting, the shared recognition that the pitch is corny. Those antibodies don’t cure the disease; they help us live with it. The consumer’s wink becomes part of the system’s operating logic, letting people feel savvy while still being sold to.