A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

Ads are written to have their effect on those whose attention is distracted by the other items around them. And no ad has its meaning by itself. Anybody can prove this simply but putting one of out of a magazine and studying it, or by stopping and looking carefully at one. Soon he will begin to smile.
“The Age of Advertising”, in Commonweal, September 11, (1953), Vol. 58, No. 23, p 557
Year: 1953
Chapter: Advertising
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan