Spartz+Annotation+6

Annotation #6 11/08/12 //The Persuaders//

//The Persuaders// was directed by Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin. It was released in November 2003 (Persuaders). The film was produced by Frontline on PBS. The point of the movie was to point out the danger of advertising and how it is taking over the culture of American society. There is so much “clutter” from the messages consumers are presented that current advertising has to constantly develop to keep a viewer’s attention. The film used many different examples about how companies are trying to get peoples’ attention these days. It focused on the brands that are known in most households across the country. The film used a lot of clips of what advertisers are currently presenting as well as clips that showed how a company comes up with new ways to influence viewers. The main example the story followed was the Song Airlines campaign as it was so different from what had been seen previously. The movie also had many interviews with advertisers and people who study the advertising industry. Overall, I felt that the film was pointed towards consumers as they are the ones that are being targeted by mass media. I think it was warning us to watch out for the emotional appeal that we are being presented with and truly question our need for and the purpose of the products advertised. I don’t necessarily think it was produced necessarily for environmental education purposes. It would have helped to have more focus on why consumers don’t buy into a green lifestyle instead of just saying that consumers really don’t care, so they don’t buy into it. Other than that I thought it was a fairly compelling movie.

The main sustainability problems that this film focused on were organizational, media or informational, and cultural. Due to the fact that companies’ ads blend into the wall of advertising being presented to consumers, the companies must now turn to different ways of advertising to make themselves stand out. To do this, focus groups and newly consolidated advertising firms are now being used to determine the best way to reach out to customers. This is a change in organization due to the need of a constant flow of new ideas that will allow companies to target specific audiences that would be the most likely to buy their products. Advertising firms that aren’t able to keep up with new ideas are quickly shoved aside in corporations’ need for the best way to be heard. Currently the best way to be heard seems to be appealing to a viewer’s heart instead of his or her logic. This was compelling to me to hear that companies need to make the viewers justify why they want things. Companies like Delta with Song Airlines are trying to appeal more to a lifestyle choice (family style) than what the product does. This lack of product information may cause some miscommunication as far as what product is being presented. The media has always known how to twist information for someone’s benefit; this is no different. Products aren’t allowed to false advertise like politicians are allowed to lie, but they are able to target specific demographics and limit the amount of factual information presented which severely limits a viewer’s knowledge of a subject. Beyond appealing to a consumer’s desire for a certain lifestyle, companies are trying to integrate more forms of advertising like placing their products in movies and television shows. The more natural the product placement is, the more likely a viewer would be to implement that good or service into their own life. This need for a certain lifestyle causes problems culturally. American culture is now thoroughly immersed in advertising and product placement. There are some “iconic” brands that are essentially “cults”. I found this intriguing since I had always thought of cults as more idealistic rather than materialistic. This film was able to show why those are essentially the same thing. I however disagree that “once a culture becomes entirely advertising friendly, it ceases to be a culture at all.” I agree that this is a sad point of existence where society believes what they are told and acts in accordance with those presenting information to them, but it is still technically a form of belief and behavioral system. Through all of this the main action point presented by the movie was the need for consumers to question what they are being told. Do we need it and do we know enough about it to make an informed decision?

I know that it was brought up in the movie the amount of money that companies spend on advertising (12 million by Delta when it tried to create Song Airlines), but I was curious as to the average percentage that was spent on advertising. Was it always the same percentage and they just advertised differently or do companies really spend much more of their budgets now? According to Galbi, the percent compared to GDP of money spent on advertising has remained at about 2% since 1919 when advertising was first tracked (Galbi 2008). While the apparent value of things has drastically increased, the percent spent on advertising has comparatively stayed with the trend, instead of increasing as I felt the movie was implying. I was also curious as to the percentage of movies that include product placement and how much of a films budget comes from product placement. According to Sparksheet, 68% of films contain some form of product placement and on average any given product is seen 8 times during the movie. A large portion of any given films budget also comes from product placement. “The next James Bond film will reportedly receive $45 million, a third of its overall budget, from high-end on-screen product placement” (Levy 2011).

References: Galbi, Douglas. “U.S. Annual Advertising Spending Since 1919.” Galbi Think! Updated: 14 Sept 2008. Accessed: 11 Nov 2012. <[]>. Levy, Dan. “Hollywood, Madison Avenue and Morgan Spurlock’s Greatest Movie Ever Sold.” Sparksheet. 11 July 2011. <[]>. “The Pursuaders.” WGBH. FRONTLINE. Updated: 9 Nov 2004. Accessed: 8 Nov 2012. <[]>.

Annotation 6 document