The+Persuaders

Chris Knortz 11/14/2011 Title: The Persuaders

Director: Barak Goodman and Douglas Ruskoff, 2004

2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film? In modern society people are inundated with a constant stream of advertising, companies trying to convince that person to change their life style. Not always to purchase a specific product but more commonly now to live in a manner that demands the ownership of such a product. To accomplish this level of persuasion advertisers are forced to continually increase their advertising levels. This constant stream of advertising has made people oblivious to its effects in some regards. The haze of advertising has begun to change culture and the effects of the people on the environment.

3. How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? The film opens with a dramatic pretrial of New Your City at night. The bright lights and alluring displays of advertising are showcased showing the point that advertising is deeply engrained in American culture. This trend has been steadily increasing over the decades as people become more immune to the effects of advertising. Author Naomi Klien makes the quote “consumers are like roaches, you spray them and spray them and after a while it does not work anymore”. Throughout the film different groups are shown trying to attain the next level of advertising greatness. These ranges from a man who claims to create a formula for advertising success to a company that tries to create a social class with their airline. All are shown as the next extravagant plan to gain the consumer’s attention. 4. What sustainability problems does the film draw out? New marketing tactics are looking to connect with people on a deeper level, no longer showing their products as better or more reliable, but now as objects that bring happiness. Some have looked to develop a cult culture around their products to ensure sales. Apple has been able to create an entire culture and lifestyle around their line of products that many have become very loyal to. This idea of culture goes further, people feel they are participating in this culture with their purchases. Culture has always been an expression of people’s interaction with each other. Advertiser’s image of culture is people interacting with goods or services. The human interaction is a secondary thought. Advertising’s ability to connect and influence people on an emotional level can be seen moving the individual’s freedom of choice to the side. People get lost in the passion of becoming part of the amazing culture that is portrayed in the advertisement. They forget why they needed the product in the first place and in some cases never needed the product to begin with. The new areas being explored by advertisers can be seen in almost all aspects of the world. Many times these new ads are appearing in places that people traditional would go to escape the bombardment of advertising. The show “Sex and the City” is shown on HBO, a channel that has no commercials but is only available with an extra fee. Absolute Vodka sponsored an episode to promote their drink. They were able to create an entire show devoted to selling their products. This method also had the added benefit of being an advertising monopoly on the people watching the episode. 5. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? During the film there was a section comparing modern political campaigns to advertising. The narrator visited the home of Frank Luntz, he has worked on with many prominent politicians. His work has helped bring these people to center of the political spotlight. To accomplish this Luntz works on the idea that a politician must tell people what they want to hear, not the blunt honest truth. Must of this is done with creative language not without right lies. When the Estate Tax first came up as a political issue, it was not noticed as a problem. Later when this tax was referred to as the Death Tax, its public support dramatically dropped. Luntz has worked to understand how the words used around an issue effect people’s reaction to the issue. This method, is some ways, takes people’s intelligence out of their decision making process. When people are touched on a deep, almost subconscious level, they do not see the facts of the issue only the emotion. In some ways this is worse than directly misleading the public, now people believe they have made the correct decision when really they know very few of the facts. When the film was looking at the development of the new airline Song, the group involved in the campaign was working to develop a cultural identity behind the airline. The company was investing large amounts of money into this brand, then many of the scenes showed a desperate looking company struggling for support and attention. One example was the store set up in mall for the airline. Many of the people that went were confused why the store was there. This was just one of many of the wasteful tactics the group employed to gain attention. However the airline has been able to gain market share.

6. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Throughout the film the point was made that advertising is trying to become the cultural environment that people live their lives in. This would be a very attractive position to hold for an advertiser. This idea does not account for the people who will naturally rebel against any form of popular culture. Also it fails to look at the effects of those who are aware of this marketing mentality. Do the advertisers themselves feel they are falling into the culture they are working to create, giving up their free will to pursue values and goals presented to them in commercials? Another tactic some of the advertisers were attempting to use to sustain product loyalty was developing a cult mentality. One example that was given was the car company Saturn. At the time of this video this company was one of the smaller producers in the U.S. One reason for their low sales numbers was there general lack of quality. This has continued to degrade the company’s sales, where they now sell so few cars as to not be registered on many automotive listings. The advertisers had hoped to cover the lack of quality with blind devotion by the consumers, in the end the truth of the product showed itself.

7. What audiences does the film best address? Advertising has become a continuous part of modern life in much of the western world, because of this fact of life everyone with any level of purchasing power should understand the tactics used in the industry. This applies to small children that are given toys in fast food meals to adults seeing commercial for cars, when no distinguishing facts about the car are ever shown, only emotions that are associated with the car. All this is an attack on the emotions of the consumers that for many is an unseen and unrealized manipulation. 8. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value? It would have been interesting to see what people felt they were unaffected by advertising. Even to look at the people making the advertisements to see if they saw the effects even when they know the game being played so well. For many there is probably some amount of arrogance and pride to believe that they as individuals are above such emotional games. Even when this is probably an eventuality the advertisers have already anticipated and planed for.

9. What kinds of action and points of intervention are suggested by the film? One way to minimize the effects of the bombardment of advertising would be for people to become truly educated on an issue before making a decision. Much of modern advertising tactics work to connect with people on an emotional level, however true understanding of the situation can remove or greatly reduce the effects of emotion on important decision.

10. What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out? As a child McDonalds is one of the first commercials many children remember. This may be form the Happy Meals that every child loves because of the toys, or the clown that is seen in front of the store, or the play area, the list goes on. McDonald’s has spent decades working to attract children to eat there. It has gone beyond providing food they know children enjoy or need to be healthy. The advertising convinces children they will be happy at McDonald’s with Ronald or in the play area. This issue regarding the morality of advertising to children was discussed at the McDonald’s shareholder’s meeting. The Los Angeles Times story goes though some of the main issues, first that children’s brains are not developed the same as adults making them more susceptible to such coercion. McDonalds counter by putting the responsibility on parents to say no to their children. Another article that I found was on the actual legislation surrounding advertising to children. Much of this legislation is for television advertising. For children programs, the allowed commercial time is greater than that allowed for adult programs. Children do not protest to such long commercials, they see then as part of the entertainment of the show. Some of the other policies of the FCC mandated specific time requirements for educational programs. Also the FCC recently fined the Disney Corporation $1.5 million for unhallowed advertising in one of their programs. Much of this work tries to limit the effects of advertising on children, yet there is still a section of the article that discusses parents’ responsibility in raising their children.

York, Emily and Karp, Gregory. “McDonald’s Defends its Right to Advertise to Children” Lon Angeles Times, May 2011 [] AEF.com, “Advertising on Children” 2005 []