The Persuaders' Critique

While watching The Persuaders, it was interesting that so much research goes into a single companies advertising campaign. Consumers don't realize that what they are seeing in advertisements has been specifically designed to evoke a certain emotion in them. In the "World's Most Famous Commercial," the Apple commercial, the company was trying to get their customers to feel powerful by buying a Macintosh computer.

The Persuaders also highlighted the research of Delta Airlines' Song campaign and how the research was used. The director, Douglass Rushkoff, really elaborated on every detail of the brand name in order to show consumers how a brand is created. It helped his film to show the different steps that have to be taken in order for a company to launch a new program.

As consumers we only see the brands that are succeeding such as Apple and Nike. The New York Times wrote an article about the Song failure, and it talks about the next step for Delta Airlines after filing for bankruptcy. I believe that since the company spent too much money trying to be a "luxury" airline, it really cost them. They could not compensate with ticket sales because they were also trying to be cost efficient with ticket prices.

Another thing that stuck out to me when it came to persuasive techniques from the movie was the Acxiom Company. The fact that Acxiom has information on every person and can tailor advertisements to a certain demographic from that information is unreal.

The Persuaders explained in detail how Acxiom works and even has interviews with people who have used the service to try and understand the concept better. Acxiom has information on things such as:

· magazine subscriptions

· personal information (i.e. address, phone number, and e-mail address)

· information from online surveys

· anything "public" on the internet

Other than Acxiom, there are also less invasive ways of getting consumer information. I think that Douglass Rushkoff did a great job of interviewing important people in the advertising world and having them explain their motive when advertising.

Many companies use focus groups to gain insight for their company. The Persuaders interviewed Frank Lutz(right) to show the focus group aspect of research. This segment really benefitted the video because it showed consumers how certain words really make a difference in advertising.

In my opinion, Douglass Rushkoff did an excellent job of showing consumers what happens behind the curtains of advertising. He used his contacts to interview major advertising giants, explained important advertising techniques, and also showed a wide variety of information on the topic.