Arts Advocates Warned Against Misleading Claims in Advocacy

A critical analysis by Douglas McLellan warns arts advocates against using exaggerated or misleading claims to promote the arts. The article revisits a 1970s Advertising Council spot where Yankees manager Billy Martin claimed the arts outdrew baseball, noting the comparison ignored media viewership. It highlights the 'Mozart effect'—a 1993 study of 36 students showing short-term spatial reasoning improvement, which was hyped into claims of increased intelligence, leading to commercial products and even a Georgia state budget for classical CDs. The piece also critiques economic impact studies using RIMS multipliers, arguing that arts spending often leaves local economies and that multipliers apply equally to other sectors. McLellan, project director of the first arts economic impact study for the New England Foundation for the Arts, concludes that shoddy research can sway policymakers but rigorous studies with modest results struggle to compete.