Dr. Mason Lecture: “The Rise of Mass-Media Puffery and the ‘Death’ of Literature in Georgian Britain”

      Nicholas Mason, an associate professor for the Department of English, presented a lecture titled, "The Rise of Mass-Media Puffery and the 'Death' of Literature in Georgian Britain" on March 24, 2011 in the Harold B. Lee Library auditorium.  This lecture discussed on how literature and advertising have been closely related.  His purpose was to inform us that "advertisers need to be more aware of what is happening in literature, and on the flip-side literature scholars need to be more aware of what is happening in communications."
      Dr. Mason lectured about how many people consider early British literature to be of great substance and that advertising has in lack of better terms, corrupted literature.  Literature being considered elitist and sophisticated while advertising as "anti-intellectual."  He then discussed on how literature and advertising have the same roots and had the same purposes.
      He started off by talking about puffery.  He went onto explain that puffery is an exaggerated praise (especially in advertising); it is a disguise/mask for news stories, reviews, and opinion pieces.  Literature and advertising goes way back to Georgian Britain.  Georgian Britain took place 1740-1830.  At this time, Britain was the most economically advanced Western nation.
      During Georgian Britain, much great literature was surfacing because literacy rates were rising.  In order for authors to get people to read their works, they had to get their friends to spread the word on how great their book was.  The spread of word by ear soon turned into authors writing promotional pieces to "advertise" their works.  Here we see the earliest form of literature and advertising merging.
      Dr. Mason then said that the 21st century hasn't changed its methods since Georgian Britain.  When we order items, especially books, textbooks, electronics, etc. there are reviews and product information contained under it.  What are the reviews like?  Whether it be a good product or not, the reviews portray the product to be this glamorous item that you are silly not to possess it.  Those reviews are written by a teams of editorialists.  Whether the product be a good one or not, they only care about selling and bringing in the Benjamins.  You see, how much different is this than back during Georgian Britain?
      Some of my thoughts when listening to the lecture is that we hear all the time, "oh, this book is a classic.  This is truly great literature."  I wonder how many classics are actually considered great literature.  Have we been brainwashed into reading inspiring works just because our professors and parents say those works are amazing when really it's a terrible work that for many years it's been passed down as a great piece of literature when really it's not that great of a read?  What is really considered great literature and what is phony literature due to advertising purposes?  Whenever I would read reviews or ratings on books, movies, etc. I was surprised to find out how many disappointed me with good ratings.  True, it could be my opinion but I feel that those works have good editorialists and good advertising agencies.