Tony Schwartz (1923-2008) was a media theorist, audio documentarian
and advertising creator. Considered a guru of the newly emerging
"electronic media" by Marshall McLuhan, Schwartz ushered in a new
age of media study in the 1970's. His works anticipated the end of
the print-based media age, and pointed to a new electronic age of
mass media. Known as the "wizard of sound," he is perhaps best
known for creating the most talked about political commercial in
television history: the "Daisy" ad for the 1964 Lyndon Johnson
campaign.
Schwartz began recording sounds of New York City - street sounds,
musicians and conversations - releasing over a dozen albums on
Folkways Records and Columbia Records. One of his albums, New York
Taxi Driver, was among the first 100 recordings inducted into the
U.S. National Recording Registry. From 1945 to 1976, Schwartz
produced and hosted "Around New York" on WNYC.
He transitioned into advertising work in 1958 when approached by
Johnson and Johnson about creating ads for their baby powder,
because of his reputation for recording children. His resulting
work is often credited as the first use of children's real voices
in radio commercials (previously children had been portrayed by
specially trained adults).
Briefly specializing in advertising using children, he soon
broadened into general advertising, creating ads for such clients
as Coca Cola, American Airlines, Chrysler, American Cancer Society,
and Kodak.
Schwartz subsequently shifted his advertising work toward political
campaigns. While continuing to create product ads, he created
thousands of political ads for such candidates as Lyndon Johnson,
Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, George
McGovern and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
In a final transition in his career, he turned his energies toward
public interest advertising for social causes. Early in his career
he had created the first anti-smoking commercials for television
and radio. In the 1980s he resumed these efforts, creating many
anti-smoking commercials, as well as media work for such causes as
fire prevention, AIDS awareness, educational funding and nuclear
disarmament.
In 2007, Schwartz's entire body of work, including field recordings
and commercials, was acquired by the Library of Congress. John
Carey is Professor of Communications and Media Management at
Fordham University. John Carey brings 25 years of experience in
media-industry research and product development to his teaching at
the Gabelli School of Business. His clients have included Google,
American Express, AT&T, NBC Universal, The New York Times,
Primedia, A&E Television Networks, Digitas, The Online
Publishers Association, PBS, Cablevision, Rainbow Media, Scholastic
and XM Satellite Radio, among others.
Professor Carey has served on the advisory boards of the Adult
Literacy Media Alliance, the Annenberg School For Communications
and Fordham's Donald McGannon Communication Research Center. He was
a commissioner on the Annenberg Commission on the Press and
Democracy, has been an invited lecturer in more than a dozen
countries and has presented his research to the boards of major
media companies in the United States. Before coming to Fordham, he
taught at Columbia Business School and at New York University. He
resides in New York City.
"I doubt that I have seen any single document which pieces together
in such a convincing way the processes by which advertising works
on us (and in us)."
-- Senator Frank E. Moss, U.S. Commerce Committee
"The Responsive Chord is a survival kit for those individuals
trying to maintain their sanity in a world where their senses and
intelligence are bombarded daily by audio and visual stimuli."
-- Sander Vanocur
"I read The Responsive Chord as a freshman in college and it
affected everything I've ever made since. Its message is practical
and deep. I'd recommend it to anyone."
-- Ira Glass, creator & host of This American Life
"Tony Schwartz was a genius when it came to understanding the
communications revolution of the 20th century. My interview with
him was one of my favorites and one of the most important of my own
long career in broadcast journalism."
-- Bill Moyers
"Tony Schwartz was not only an original theorist but a master
persuader whose must-read book is brimming with indispensable
insight about how humans construct meaning through media."
-- Prof. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director, Annenberg Public Policy
Center
"The Responsive Chord certainly gets a big response from me.... I
enjoyed it enormously. This is a totally untouched field and Tony
Schwartz has a monopoly in this area."
-- Marshall McLuhan
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
