SKU: 33906848388

Selling the American People: Advertising, Optimization, and the Origins of Adtech

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Selling the American People: Advertising, Optimization, and the Origins of AdtechHow marketers learned to dream of optimization and speak in the idiom of management science well before the widespread use of the Internet. Algorithms, data extraction, digital marketers monetizing "eyeballs" these all seem like such recent features of our lives. And yet, Lee McGuigan tells us in this eye opening book, digital advertising was well underway before the widespread use of the Internet. Explaining how marketers have brandished the tools of

How marketers learned to dream of optimization and speak in the idiom of management science well before the widespread use of the Internet.

Algorithms, data extraction, digital marketers monetizing "eyeballs" these all seem like such recent features of our lives. And yet, Lee McGuigan tells us in this eye-opening book, digital advertising was well underway before the widespread use of the Internet. Explaining how marketers have brandished the tools of automation and management science to exploit new profit opportunities, Selling the American People traces data-driven surveillance all the way back to the 1950s, when the computerization of the advertising business began to blend science, technology, and calculative cultures in an ideology of optimization. With that ideology came adtech, a major infrastructure of digital capitalism.

To help make sense of today's attention merchants and choice architects, McGuigan explores a few key questions: How did technical experts working at the intersection of data processing and management sciences come to command the center of gravity in the advertising and media industries? How did their ambition to remake marketing through mathematical optimization shape and reflect developments in digital technology? In short, where did adtech come from, and how did data-driven marketing come to mediate the daily encounters of people, products, and public spheres? His answers show how the advertising industry's efforts to bend information technologies toward its dream of efficiency and rational management helped to make "surveillance capitalism" one of the defining experiences of public life.

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SKU: 33906848388

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Cindy heller
Louisville, US
★★★★★ 5
Good quality
Color: Chocolate, Size: 8 Panel
Very nice looking divider. We are using as a privacy divider around our hot tub. We have not left it out in the weather yet due to many storms coming through.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2026
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stacyann
Lexington, US
★★★★★ 5
Great privacy option for townhome deck!
Color: White, Size: 6 Panel, Color: White, Size: 6 Panel
Deck privacy! I wanted a way to add some privacy to my second floor townhome deck. It’s been holding up well and doesn’t look junky! I used zip ties on one end so I can open and close it as I wish. Great solution to living in close quarters to your neighbors! I purchased the six panel and it’s a perfect size
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Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2026
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Amazon Customer
Whiting, US
★★★★★ 4
Flimsy
Color: Beige, Size: 8 Panel
It’s thinner than what I thought and flimsy.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2026
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Tiffany C
Louisville, US
★★★★★ 5
Easy assemble and not to big!
Color: Black, Size: 132in-Large Metal Base
I bought this because I fo a lot of zoom/teams meetings and work just mandated no false backgrounds (don’t ask) soooo to hide my real home and allow others to roam free while I work I got this. Easy to assemble although you will need some space. I thought I might be to big at 11’ wide as I have a small desk area but actually it’s perfect and could use a couple more panels. Leaves just enough room so I’m not completely cocooned - I can move my chair and get up walk behind chair and exit space. Great deal and tax deductible!
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Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2025
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Nicholas Schadewald
San Leandro, US
★★★★★ 4
Fair Quality, Hour and a half build
Color: Black, Size: 132in-Large Metal Base
Key things: It does (more or less, not completely) fold in on itself, it does block nearly all visibility (especially from an angle), it was only about an hour and thirty minutes to put together, and it is light weight. Do I recommend? Yeah.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2025

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