How the Advertising Industry Created the Counterculture

Language structure is the key to getting people to buy into new ideas.

Posted May 13, 2020 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

Timothy Leary began his career as a fairly conventional scholar and scientist. After completing his Ph.D. in clinical psychology, he served as director of psychiatric research at the Kaiser Family Foundation and lectured at Harvard University. However, by 1966, he had become notorious in certain elite circles for his contrarian ideas and lifestyle experiments.

A few years earlier, Leary had first encountered lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD. Eventually, the potential of this compound to alter perception became the dominant strand in his work and then his life.

He left his post as a Harvard psychology professor and began to consider what to do with his newfound knowledge about the true nature of reality. It became increasingly clear to him that he could not keep these insights to himself. What he now knew could remake society, and it was his duty to spread it to the masses. Yet Leary knew his impact was still limited.

He needed to do something different.

The answer came during a lunch with Marshall McLuhan , an already famous professor of media and communications. After listening to his friend’s problem, McLuhan told him he was going about it all wrong. If he really wanted to attract a mass audience, he would have to model those who had already been doing it successfully for the better part of a century: The gentlemen of Madison Avenue.

This advice was hard for Leary to accept. His mission, as he saw it, was about taking down precisely the kind of empty commercialism the advertising industry promoted. He agonized over the dilemma. But ultimately Leary went along with his friend’s opinion. He spent weeks pouring over jingles, slogans, and ad copy. He wracked his brain, trying to figure out how to summarize the profundity of his realization with the kind of pithy phrase that was typically used to see hamburgers and lawnmowers.

The Structure of Language

In his book The Language Instinct , Steven Pinker, Director of Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT, explores why we so often respond more viscerally to the form of a message than to its actual content. “Humans like anything that purifies the basics of their world, he writes “and that resonates with the way the brain decodes the blooming, buzzing confusion out there. We like stripes and plaids, we like periodic and harmonic sounds, and we like rhymes.”

In early 1967, Leary was invited to give a speech at the first Human Be-In in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The attendees were young and shaggy—a mix of hippies, bikers, and runaways. But the savvy former professor had the good sense to match his speech with the tenor of his audience. To say the speech was short on specifics would be an understatement. In fact, most of it consisted of a single, rhythmic, alliterative phrase repeated over and over and over.

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.

It had the desired effect. From that point forward, the rate at which Leary’s message spread was nothing short of remarkable. Drawing directly from the establishment’s bag of tricks, Leary created the rallying cry the counterculture would come together around in its attempt to change the world.

The Power of the Package

As human beings, we like to think we make decisions based on things that matter. If we take on a project, it is because we genuinely feel it’s a great opportunity. If we buy a pricey product, it is because its benefits outweigh its costs. And if we spend time and money on entertainment, we like to believe it’s because we have good taste.

In truth, the forces that influence us—that draw us in and get us excited—typically have less to do with the content of the message as with how they are delivered. From Julius Caesar’s “Veni Vidi Vici” to Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death,” the most skilled political outsiders have always used sloganeering, radical simplification, and relentless repetition to help them gain and consolidate power.

Stop overcomplicating and over-explaining your message. Whatever it is you’re trying to sell or get people to buy into, boil down your central idea into a pithy, memorable phrase or image. Then repeat it in as many forms and through as many channels you can get access to.

When people can't escape your rallying cry or symbol or standard, they will inevitably come to adopt it as their own.

Get a list of books about mass persuasion and influence.

Wu, Tim. The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.

Share this post Facebook Bluesky Linkedin Email

There was a problem adding your email address. Please try again.

By submitting your information you agree to the Psychology Today Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy

Michael Schein is the founder and president of MicroFame Media and the author of The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World’s Greatest Propagandists, Self-Promoters, Cult Leaders, Mischief Makers, and Boundary Breakers.

Get the help you need from a therapist near you–a FREE service from Psychology Today.

This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.