Before watching “The Persuaders”, I never realized the cyclical process that advertisers go through to keep consumers interested and focused on their products. The constant pressure that these persuaders face often causes them to outsource for help from experts that know what works and what doesn’t. This means that advertising agencies are constantly being hired and fired, making this a fast-paced, ever-changing industry.
Many of the old commercials could just use comparative words to entice their audience, but as time went on and more products were available, companies had to work harder for their business. The movie gave an example of that with Song Airlines, which was a small branch of Delta Airlines that catered to the individual flyer’s needs. The company was started during a bad time for Delta, so the company hired Andy Spade to come up with different commercial concepts. I was initially surprised by Spade’s decision not to put anything related to flying or airplanes in the commercials. They were very creative and artistic but they couldn’t give consumers a sense of what made Song special as an airline company. This lead to very little success as Song was
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introduced to the public. Even upon entering the information center in Boston, people were confused as to whether it was an airline or travel agency. I was even more surprised when the company continued to listen to Spade’s advice for the final commercial that was made in an attempt to salvage the airline. Once again, he had a commercial that had nothing to do with flying. It was easy to see people’s concern, yet no one spoke up to Spade or just dropped his idea altogether. My biggest question was why didn’t anyone take action to turn the airline around by going in a different direction? This reminded me of cognitive dissonance, which we have been discussing in class. I think people had an issue with Spade’s ideas, but knowing his credentials and experience, they didn’t even consider it an option to speak up. Some of Song’s company members had doubts about the concepts after viewing the first commercials as a group. They voiced their concern in their own interviews, but just nodded their heads and praised Spade’s ideas when they were around him. The one thing that Song did as a company that was good was their use of focus groups. In class, we talked about different types of experiments. Focus groups are similar to surveys, a type of correlational research, because they share many of the same pros and cons. The groups can even be cheaper than surveys, and it is an easy and quick way to gather a substantial amount of data in a short period of time. These focus groups for Song Airlines were put in place to ask people their preferences about flying. I think that this strategy would have been more effective if the marketing branch of the company had portrayed more of these in their advertisements. Another example of correlational research, which we learned about in class, was the work done by Douglas Atkin, a renowned author and strategist.
He discovered a relation between cults and brand consumerism. After talking to members of various cults, he concluded that, like these cults, consumers continue buying cult brands because they want to feel a sense of belonging. When advertisers are able to hone in on this, people feel a sense of commitment and a desire to be a part of the particular brand’s following. I thought this research was a really interesting correlation. I wouldn’t have thought that there was any relationship between cults and popular brands because cults seem so anti-conformist. But this research shows that in some ways, everyone wants to feel like they belong
somewhere. My opinion of this video is that it was well put together and gave viewers several examples of the ways in which we are persuaded by corporations and companies. I learned a lot about all the work that goes into making commercials and ads. I never realized that companies worked so diligently with experts that would know how to reel in consumers. It was amazing to see the work of Clotaire Rapaille and the useful but strange connections he would find between our minds and what we unconsciously desire. This video is good to watch to get a better idea of advertisement and to be more aware of the techniques used to persuade us.
Soon after launch on January 28th, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart and shattered the nation. The tragedy was on the hearts and minds of the nation and President Ronald Reagan. President Reagan addressed the county, commemorating the men and woman whose lives were lost and offering hope to Americans and future exploration. Reagan begins his speech by getting on the same level as the audience by showing empathy and attempting to remind us that this was the job of the crew. He proceeds with using his credibility to promise future space travel. Ultimately, his attempt to appeal to the audience’s emotions made his argument much stronger. Reagan effectively addresses the public about the tragedy while comforting, acknowledging, honoring and motivating his audience all in an effort to move the mood from grief to hope for future exploration.
In 102 Minutes, Chapter 7, authors Dwyer and Flynn use ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to the readers’ consciences, minds and hearts regarding what happened to the people inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. Of particular interest are the following uses of the three appeals.
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of several civil rights activists who were arrested in Birmingham Alabama, after protesting against racial injustices in Alabama. Dr. King wrote this letter in response to a statement titled A Call for Unity, which was published on Good Friday by eight of his fellow clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King uses his letter to eloquently refute the article. In the letter dr. king uses many vivid logos, ethos, and pathos to get his point across. Dr. King writes things in his letter that if any other person even dared to write the people would consider them crazy.
“The Persuaders” by Frontline is about how advertising has affected Americans. It starts out by stating the problem of attaining and keeping the attention of potential customers. Balancing the rational and emotional side of an advertisement is a battle that all advertisers have trouble with. Human history has now gone past the information age and transcended into the idea age. People now look for an emotional connection with what they are affiliated with. The purpose of an emotional connection is to help create a social identity, a kind of cult like aroma. Because of this realization, companies have figured out that break through ideas are more important than anything else now. But there are only so many big
The movie, “The Great Debaters” (2007), was both directed and starred by, Denzel Washington who acted as Melvin Tolson, English and Speech Professor of Wiley College. Prior to this film’s production, many were not knowledgeable of Wiley College or its debating team. However, transformation took place when Melvin coached a four (4) member debate team of Wiley College into victory. One of the most memorable event was the moment Wiley College argued their opponent Oklahoma City College in scene two (2) of the film. During this debate, Wiley College was represented by the first female debater ever been on the school’s debating team, Samantha Booke along with her other team members. They argued in support of the moot, “Negro’s should be admitted to State Universities.”
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.
Imagine living in a society where everything is uniform. Anything you wear, eat or think is controlled. Then you realize that your life is not actually yours. This sounds bizarre, but it’s true. Without knowing it, everyone dreams of the same things in life; the perfect job, the perfect family, or the perfect house. We may not all agree to this, but the fact is that we all dream the same dream. In some way, we are all part of one big “cult” because our desires are similar to one another. When the word “cult” comes to mind, it has a negative connotation. American society makes most of its profits by the use of advertisements. In Kalle Lasn’s essay “The Cult You’re In,written in 1996, he uses rhetorical tactics such as ethos, pathos, and logos to illustrate how ads increase a person’s desire for goods and services that he or she may not want. There are some aspects of as in his essay that are rhetorically effective; however, there are some aspects of his essay that are not.
The documentary film “The Persuaders” is a great film that captures the evolution of advertising. The film is broken up into six distinctive segments. Each segment can be viewed as a specific moment in time where advertisement evolved in order to survive in the fast paced society we live in. The film starts off with a crucial concept of standing out. The narrator mentions in the first few minutes of the film that companies are struggling to come up with new ideas for advertising. This may seem not so much of a big deal but, the narrator goes on to explain that as the years progressed, the number of advertisements increased exponentially. It had gotten to the point where people began to pay less and less attention to advertisements. One of the people interviewed for this film was Naomi Klien, author of “No Logo”. Naomi stated that consumers are like roaches, you spray them and spray them and after a while it doesn’t work anymore we develop immunities. Seeing the threat that this poses on them, many companies have tried numerous ways to break through what the companies call the clutter crisis. Their need to grab the attention of the advertise...
Pollan’s article provides a solid base to the conversation, defining what to do in order to eat healthy. Holding this concept of eating healthy, Joe Pinsker in “Why So Many Rich Kids Come to Enjoy the Taste of Healthier Foods” enters into the conversation and questions the connection of difference in families’ income and how healthy children eat (129-132). He argues that how much families earn largely affect how healthy children eat — income is one of the most important factors preventing people from eating healthy (129-132). In his article, Pinsker utilizes a study done by Caitlin Daniel to illustrate that level of income does affect children’s diet (130). In Daniel’s research, among 75 Boston-area parents, those rich families value children’s healthy diet more than food wasted when children refused to accept those healthier but
A TED Talk video is spreading ideas in a speech that takes about eighteen minutes or less.In a TED Video, the speaker uses Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, to persuade their audience to believe them.Ethos is an ethical appeal (credibility), convincing the audience that the speaker is someone worth them listening to.Pathos is when the speaker uses emotions to persuade their audience.Logos is when the speaker uses reasoning and common sense to get to their audience.
History of Persuasion Essay Rhetoric is something that has been studied and utilized since the days of Plato and Aristotle to even now in the coming presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In order to become a successful “rhetor”, one must learn the art of being persuasive to the audience of choice. In the course of history there have been many successful figures who have used rhetoric to influence people to join their movement. One cannot deny though that over time rhetoric has had to evolve with enhanced technology and new public interactions, such as social media and the internet. This paper will highlight Aristotle and some of his theories, David Ewoldsen and a few studies he contributed to in regards to people being Aristotle builds a case that rhetoric is an art which goes against “Gorgias” written by Plato that states rhetoric is not an art since it is not related to a “definite subject” (Rapp, 2002).
Jonathan Kozol revealed the early period’s situation of education in American schools in his article Savage Inequalities. It seems like during that period, the inequality existed everywhere and no one had the ability to change it; however, Kozol tried his best to turn around this situation and keep track of all he saw. In the article, he used rhetorical strategies effectively to describe what he saw in that situation, such as pathos, logos and ethos.
This persuasive speech was given in Rio de Janeiro, and was a plea to the individuals in attendance at the United Nations Earth Summit to recognize how they are contaminating the environment with hopes that these audience members will revise their future proposals.
An average American is said to be exposed to about five thousand advertisements in one day. Through these ads, producers can connect with consumers at a manipulative level. That instead of just simply displaying their product to attract the consumers’ interest different motifs and sale pitches are used to manipulate customers into buying their product.
Advertising generally tries to sell the things that consumers want even if they should not wish for them. Adverting things that consumers do not yearn for is not effective use of the advertiser’s money. A majority of what advertisers sell consists of customer items like food, clothing, cars and services-- things that people desire to have. On the other hand it is believed by some advertising experts that the greatest influence in advertising happens in choosing a brand at the point of sale.