The democratic state…evolved a technique of advertising and of high pressure salesmanship, a flamboyant journalism, a radio and a cinema that stamped the same stereotypes on millions of brains…the most damning blow the dictatorships have struck at democracy has been the compliment they have paid us in taking over and perfecting our most prized techniques of persuasion and our underlying contempt for the credulity of the masses.” In short, the Third Reich had grasped the lessons of 1910s propaganda and 1920s advertising and put them to its own use.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 416