"The Persuaders"

• What in "The Persuaders" surprised you (or not)? Name one new thing you learned about marketing or politics from watching the film. Name one new thing you learned about yourself from watching the film, or one thing that the film reiterated about yourself.
  

I was not surprised by many of the ideas that were discussed in “The Persuaders.” I feel that I am quite aware of the role that advertising plays in our lives each and every day. I understand that in America we are constantly bombarded by advertising. I thought that it was interesting how the film considered America as a dumping ground for advertising. The film acknowledged that over the last twenty years, America has become so cluttered with ads that advertising is utterly inescapable. By taking a look at New York’s Times Square, for example, one can see how much has changed over the last two decades in regards to advertising. Flashing lights, gigantic billboards, and television screens flank the sides of each and every building.


Furthermore, the film described the way that Americans have become immune to advertising. This concept is one that I have never really stopped to think about. Advertising has become such a normal part of our lives that in order for something to stand out anymore it has to be a new and unique concept. For this reason, advertising is now popping up in the most peculiar places. For example, as mentioned in the film, one might find an ad in a place as unusual as the last hole of a mini-golf course. While watching “The Persuaders,” I learned how much time and money is put into creating and executing new advertising concepts. I found the use of focus groups to be a very effective advertising tool. Furthermore, it was amazing to hear that some businesses are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend the day with a marketing research guru to unlock a so called advertising code.

While watching “The Persuaders,” I found that I learned something about myself. I realized that perhaps advertising is not the line of work that I am interested in. Over the summer, I decided that I wanted to minor in advertising, but after watching “The Persuaders,” I found myself questioning the ethical aspects of advertising. I have always been aware that I business will do whatever it takes to sell an American on its product, but, truthfully, I don’t know how I feel about the lack of reality and actual connectivity that surrounds advertising. In particular, I found the development of the advertising campaign for Song, a new airline, to be quite thought provoking. As I watched fashion designer, Spade, collaborate with Song’s advertising team, I was surprised by the inspiration, a book called Lovers, that he wanted to use as a springboard for the airline’s first television commercial. While Spade took a very unique approach, his method was to attract consumers not by mentioning the airline’s advantageous features, but, rather, he wanted to create an emotional reaction, one which I found very abstract and disconnected from the actual product being sold.

• "The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?
  

I feel that the amount of advertising that an American encounters on a daily basis is absolutely mind boggling. Advertising is everywhere, and, unfortunately, it has created an America that is possessed by materialism and overindulgence. I believe that the exponential growth of advertising over the past twenty years has been detrimental to our culture. In “The Persuaders,” it was even mentioned that advertising is in many ways depleting the very existence of the American culture. This concept suggests that the amount of advertising found in America, whether on the Internet, on TV, in print, or even along the side of the highway, has surpassed justifiable limits. However, because America thrives on it competitive capitalistic economy, the growth of advertising is not unexpected. As mentioned in the film, once a business starts to advertise, it can’t stop. In order to be successful, businesses must spend thousands, if not millions, of dollars each year on advertising endeavors. When a company lacks a strong advertising campaign, it will have difficulty keeping up in the American economic market.

Twenty or thirty years ago, America was a different place. One could not imagine the appearance of Times Square today, twenty years ago. It is amazing to think of how far advertising has advanced in only the past two decades. There are so many new mediums for advertising to take advantage of. One cannot go on a webpage without seeing a flashing picture of an iPod or the picture of a supposed weight loss patient. Magazines are filled with manipulated images promoting designer clothing and prescription medications. The advancement of computer technology, for example the progression of editing programs like Photoshop, has revolutionized the advertising industry. Furthermore, the utilization of Internet video clips by companies like American Express and BMW was unheard of twenty years ago. One could not imagine the possibilities of the Internet even ten years ago. In addition, over the last twenty years, Americans have surely become even more self-possessed. The growth of advertising is a contributing factor to so many American’s self-centeredness. Advertising’s advancement has created a society obsessed with name brands and the idea of making a good impression by one’s ability to buy, buy, buy.