Mental Capitalism

Abstract

There are standard economic reasons for promotion activities. Expenditure on advertising pays where economies of scale can be exploited. Economies of scale are characteristic of Fordist production. They are sizeable in the case of information goods since information products involve high overhead costs but negligible reproduction costs. In a communication network, both economic efficiency and attractiveness increase with the number of network participants. Accordingly, the role played by advertising in an industrial society expands in information society. Still, all those reasons do not sufficiently explain the penetrating force of publicity and its spillover beyond the limits of sales promotion. They may explain why the incitement, channelling and seduction of attention today regularly accompanies economic activity, but they fail to explain why the scramble for attention has turned into the overriding objective.