Here we explore the legacy of the late Tony Schwartz with his son, Anton. Tony Schwartz created commercials for more than four hundred corporations, five presidential campaigns, and countless social causes. Hailed as a guru of the newly emerging “electronic media” by Marshall McLuhan, he taught media studies at New York University, Harvard, Columbia, and Fordham. In 2007, the Library of Congress acquired Schwartz’s entire body of work. Bill Moyers has said of him, “He was a genius in his understanding of the communications revolution of the 20th century.” And Moyers further added that his interview with Tony Schwartz was one of his favorites and one of the most important of his long career in broadcast journalism. Tony Schwartz was the creator of one of the most famous ads of all time, “The Daisy Ad” which only aired once but was credited for the successful election of Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964. The ad was one of the first to go viral over the news media. Schwartz understood that viewers don’t come to media as a blank slate; they bring their own experience, biases, hopes, and dreams. He was the pioneer of modern media. Anton describes his father’s philosophy: “It isn’t a manipulation . . . The listener is an active participant in the creation of the message by how they respond to it, by what assumptions, emotions, and knowledge they bring to the table. [The message] reacts with the listener’s feelings, understanding, and knowledge. The listener is an active participant in this process.”
