There’s No Such Thing As “Freedom of The Press”

Howard Gossage, Marshall McLuhan, and Apple's distinctive assets

Author

Pedro Porto Alegre
February 21, 2024

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Column: There’s No Such Thing As “Freedom of The Press”

I’ve recently finished reading The Book of Gossage and was amazed with how refreshing Howard Gossage’s takes on the advertising industry were.

As an ad man myself, I agree with several of his takes:

  • “Is advertising worth saving? Yes, if we can learn to look at advertising not as a means for filling so much space and time but as a technique for solving problems.”

  • “How often do you have to read a book, a news story, or see a movie or play? If it is interesting, once is enough; if it is dull, once is plenty.”

  • “Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.”

  • “Most advertising, by playing it safe, by never sticking its neck out, is sort of an eyeless mask that effectively prevents the people behind it from talking to the people in front of it, or from even seeing them.”

  • “Advertising utterly fails to recognize its dependence on, and responsibility for, the media whose very existence it controls.”

He was very critical of his industry, and was quite honest with prospects that came to him asking for a campaign if their values didn’t align.

Once he turned down Volkswagen (pre-DDB) because of his philosophical hatred for bigness.

The man was bold. But he also had a very critical view of media.

Gossage & McLuhan

Howard Gossage was becoming well-known in the industry due to groundbreaking campaigns that he had developed with his small team at the old firehouse (where Freeman, Mander & Gossage ad agency was headquartered).

He did campaigns for the Sierra Club, Fina Petroleum, Eagle Shirtmakers, and several more. But what they all had in common was a precise sense of comedic timing and exceptionally clever copywriting.

Most of his ads were print ads, appeared on the New Yorker, and had some interesting direct response mechanism that in today’s world would outperform the industry CTRs by a country mile.

But arguably, his most consequential work was his discovery of the Canadian media theorist, Marshall McLuhan.

McLuhan was a professor from the University of Toronto who pioneered several philosophical ideas such as media ecology (a framework for understanding media's effects on human environments), what the World Wide Web would do to human relationships, and the impact of the medium in conveying a message (cue The Medium is The Message).

But if it wasn’t for Howard Gossage bringing McLuhan to the US and taking him around the speaking circuit, nobody would have ever heard of his amazing ideas.

Freedom of The Press

This relationship with McLuhan was incredibly formative for Gossage.

So much so that he went on to talk extensively about why he didn’t believe that in the US there was such a thing as freedom of the press.

During his time he observed great print publications commoditize themselves by reducing their prices below the cost of production, but with the plan of making up the gap by selling advertising within them.

This small, yet consequential move, was what he described as the death of the freedom of the press.

When the price to produce a magazine goes up from $0.50 to $0.60 but they continue charging customers $0.50, it has a $0.10 gap to make up. By getting advertisers to fill that gap to break even, suddenly the editor of the publication has lost all its editorial control.

When the real customers that needs pleasing become the brands advertising on it, the editors ability to speak freely goes out the window.

If we fast-forward to today, this issue has completely gotten out of hand.

Digital Media

Picture this:

A baseball team plays at their local stadium and charges fans to watch the game.

While they’re at the stadium they buy hot dogs and soda to go along with the experience. Because hot dogs are highly profitable, one day the baseball team’s GM decides to let everyone in for free but bring in more hot dog salesmen to sell more hot dogs.

But one day he realizes that when the game has 7 home runs and is decided in the final inning, people tend to buy more hot dogs.

So, he begins gaming the system and making sure every game delivers on at least 7 home runs per night and is decided on the 9th inning (with the occasional one off 5 HR game to keep things a bit unpredictable).

What he has now is a giant hot dog stand that shows baseball games. The entire ordeal is now flipped on its head.

This ridiculous analogy is perfectly fitting of today’s digital media:

  • At one time, social media was a place to keep in touch with friends and catch up on the news or interesting stories happening across the world.

  • One day advertisers realized that a large chunk of their audience spent time on those platforms, so they began paying social media companies to advertise their products on them.

  • Then social media companies realized that rage and sex made people spend more time on their platforms, meaning they could give advertisers more impressions and conversions. So, the algorithm started optimizing for that.

  • Suddenly people were addicted to likes, fighting in the comments section, and getting served unrealistic images of physical beauty that effectively deteriorated trust within society.

  • But, here’s the catch: they were selling more ads.

Freedom of Speech = Not Good for Business

Much can be said about Elon Musk’s shenanigans on Twitter/X, his stance on issues, and unwavering ability to piss off advertisers.

But one thing is clear: if we truly want freedom of the press and a place to voice our opinions freely, we, ourselves, must be the “owners” of such a space.

This means that we need to pay for it.

There’s no free lunch. Someone is picking up the bill, and whoever that is gets to decide what appears or gets censored from the medium which they control.

Some argue that the internet’s biggest mistake was abiding by an ad-supported model (as opposed to a subscription model).

While this framework has enabled more people to participate and engage with its contents, one thing has now become clear: Gossage was right all along.

Inspiration: Apple’s Distinctive Assets

This company’s ability to pump out distinctive assets is beyond anything we’ve ever seen.

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