Nicholas O'Shaughnessy

Who is Nicholas O'Shaughnessy?

Nicholas Jackson O'Shaughnessy is Professor of Communication at Queen Mary, University of London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, a Quondam Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge and has previously been a Professor at Keele University and Brunel University.

He was educated at Bedford School and Bedford College, University of London. He also holds postgraduate degrees from Cambridge University, Keble College, Oxford and Columbia University in New York.

In the 1983 general election, he stood as the Conservative candidate in Swansea East, coming in third place, behind the Liberals and Labour incumbent Donald Anderson. In 1995 he wrote five reports on political communication, commissioned by the then Prime Minister John Major.

O'Shaughnessy is the author of a number of books including The Phenomenon of Political Marketing and Politics and Propaganda, Weapons of Mass Seduction. His most recent work looks at the role of emotion in marketing and seeks understanding as to why advertising persuades.