The Persuaders

Nowadays, everywhere you look, you see some sort of advertisement around you. Turn on the TV; a commercial is often the first thing you see. Look out the window of your car on the freeway; a giant ad for who know's what is always being projected on billboards everywhere. Surf the web to research for a paper; customized online ads will pop up, specifically directed at you and your interests. This is how powerful the media and advertisers have become in our lives.

As shown to us by Douglass Rushkoff in Frontline's The Persuaders, advertisers have certain tactics that they use on consumers to convince them to buy their products, and it works. Persuaders focus on giving people an identity with advertisements, satisfying their needs, telling customers what they want to hear, choosing the appropriate words to best sell an issue, and most of all, to induce people to persuade themselves. Advertisers appeal to your emotions and values, because that's what will convince you the most, and unfortunately it does. The techniques used by persuaders are successful because of how much they make consumers believe that their product will fulfill their needs or desires.

(Douglas Rushkoff, The Persuaders. "What advertising has always wanted to do is not simply to suffuse the atmosphere but to become the atmosphere.")

In some ways, the way the media and technology in general is used and has developed over time is incredible, and really helps civilization advance, but as things like advertisements start to become all that we see and somehow take control of our emotions and thoughts, the media may not be exactly what it should be. I typically don't sit down on the couch and watch TV a lot, so I don't see quite as much advertising or as many commercials as others may, but ads are all over the place, and it's crazy, and somewhat sad, to see just how much they can affect people's feelings and decisions.