Mimetic adverts

Samuel Johnson recognized the character of avertising quite early. he noted in 1761 that “advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetic.”

And he saw that competition ruled the economy on the consumption side as much as on the production side: “He that has resolved to buy no more finds his constancy subdued . . . he is attracted by rarity . . . seduced by example and influenced by competition.” Buyers “catch from example the contagion of desire.”

And he discerned a lust for novelty so great that criminals were “to be hanged in a new way.”