2 Questions

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?

The one thing that really stood out to me in the film was how in depth these marketers go to get inside of the consumer's mind. They go as far as to play with small words in sentences, asking us outlandish things that to us makes little sense, and even delving into our deepest subconscious to pull out thoughts and ideas that we can barely comprehend in the first place. One of the main thing I learned is the play on words that marketers and advertisers use to "trick" or mask things. For instance, the Republican politicians referring to global warming as "climate control." That i not necessarily wrong by any means, but the phrase takes on almost a non derogatory meaning in that sense. It's genius the way they use language to their advantage. This film related to be in a big way since I am an advertising major. This type of profession is in my future so it was only natural for me to learn something about myself while watching the film. The thing that I learned about myself was that I have only begun to scratch the surface of marketing and advertising potential. My ideas need to be expanded outside of the box to reach some of the endless possibilities that marketers can utilize.

"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?

For me personally it is a tale of two varying perspectives. On the one hand I am a consumer like everyone else, and on the other I am an curious advertising major who enjoys and relishes the world of advertisements. Seeing things from my consumer perspective I most definitely advocate that we as a society and me personally see way too many ads in a given day. It has become such common place that ads are barely registering with us because they are injected into our own very lives day in and day out. On the other hand looking at it from a an advertiser's perspective it is easy for me to say that the ads are too few, or simply just right because of the affection and curiosity i show for advertisements. In terms of what difference it makes in knowing we see more ads then people 20 - 30 years ago, it really doesn't in my opinion. The only thing it shows us the direction we are heading in as a society. We are a country born and bread in consumerism and materialism. That is not necessarily a bad thing if we realize we are capitalistic nation that thrives on these two attributes. By witnessing more and more ads it only means that we are growing and expanding as a capitalistic nation.