What Persuaded Me In “The Persuaders”

     The Frontline documentary, “The Persuaders” discusses many different topics that all revolve around the advertisement world.  What makes this documentary so fascinating is that it opens your eyes to what we thought was just your everyday thing, that is, seeing billboards and advertisement around us without really thinking about it.  Something that immediately jumped out to me was the mere fact that advertisement agencies work closely with television and movie production companies to strategically place ads throughout their television or movie programs.  My mind was immediately blown, so to speak, because I began to have flashbacks of my favorite television shows that strategically place Starbucks in the setting or even Nike.    While watching “The Persuaders”, host, Douglas Rushkoff, discussed that advertisement agencies look at television pilots to help incorporate product advertisement.  To the average television consumer, they would not think anything of product placement, especially advertisement agencies and television agencies working together.  The average consumer would just think it was coincidental.  At least, I was one of those television consumers that thought it was coincidental.  However, throughout the documentary, they mention that if you can tell it is an ad, it didn’t work.

     In an instant, a light bulb goes off and you realize that in fact, we are persuaded and consumed with product placement and the advertisement agencies are the persuaders.  It becomes a life style and with life styles, there is a sense of comfort and we become loyal in a sense with that form of living.  Kevin Roberts created a formula that explains the loyalty we as humans have with different brands.  Brands that offer experience and a form of mystery within the ads, creates loyalty with the audience it is geared to.  We immediately have that emotional connection.  This is much like the example that “The Persuaders” shares with us, Song Airlines, because they express that it is not just an airline, it is a lifestyle.  We do not realize that advertisement does not just display the product through text; it expresses the product as a lifestyle because the company wants you to be apart of the product.  Once again, another mind blowing experience that I, along with my classmates, had because it’s true!  It is absolutely true, and we do not realize it until we have an eye opening experience, such as watching this documentary, that we in fact live in a world of advertisement that enters our life and we become persuaded to not only buy the product, but live within the product.