The Story of Citizens United v. FEC (2011)

This I had to share, It hits the nail on the head and explains allot about what politicians are "SELLING" and who they are selling it for. please watch this and if you like it go to YouTube and look at more under "about stuff"

The Advertisement world around us

The persuaders documentary explores the world of advertising and how it affects the everyday lives of the American population. The documentary informs us that the reason so much advertisement is still evolving is because after some time we develop immunity to it. We get use to seeing the ads and don’t feel the urge to just go buy the product. Advertisement is seen everywhere, on busses inside and out, times square, subway tunnels, internet, TV in forms of commercials and product placements, in everywhere of our daily surroundings even in this documentary front line is advertised about 5 times in the first minute. The more adds out there the more they have to create because the public will not find it interesting or fascinating for long. The advertisement world is about displaying a lifestyle that we must feel the need to obtain and the social identify that goes with it. This was seen when the iPod commercial was displayed. A black silhouette was seen with white head phones rocking out. Who doesn’t want that lifestyle? The integrated ads are seen everywhere. In Tv shows and movies. I once watched a Smallville episode that was interesting the product placed in this episode was a gum brand that gave character super powers. We see advertisement portrayed in many ways and different formats but in the end advertisements is what they are. Its about “what works, when does it work, and with whom”. It’s as simple as that.

The Persuaders

The Persuaders is a documentary directed by Berak Goodman and Rachel Dretzen. The documentary is on a multi-billion advertising and marketing industry. Marketers have found new ways and are searching for others to weave their message into our everyday lives. In the introduction it states, "Americans are swimming in a sea of messages," which can be seen as we, Americans are having signs left to right about things telling us to do (signs everywhere) so we are literally swimming in a sea of messages with marketers reaching towards us giving us what we want to hear so that we can become consumers and buy, buy, buy. The market research methods helps understand consumers and how they can get us to buy their product. Marketing affects politics too; politicians use tools to get elected and stay in office which, as we all know, is very true.

Morgan England

RE: "The Persuaders"

In the movie, “The Persuaders” is explaining the progression of advertising, that there is nowhere to go without it. We are in this world of clutter and its becoming our own atmosphere. We can’t even watch our beloved TV shows without seeing some form of advertising in the show. The owners of these companies are trying to engage and connect to the community, trying to draw them in and have them hooked. The companies are coming up with these commercials that aren’t even showing what their product is or what it does. But that kind of brainwashing is making the everyday average Joe want the product even if they don’t know what it is. They aren’t trying to bring in one specific group of people but rather than a whole nation of people. They are becoming part of the tribe, cult of the brands that they buy. Once the American person found a product they love, their most likely going to stick with it. Becoming that regular buyer. The product they are producing the love mark, creating loyalty beyond reasoning. By having this love mark, the companies are able to keep a hold of their consumers, and have them keep coming back for more and more.

We never seem to look into the hidden messages when we buy things. When one person buys an item, it’s usually out of impulse. They like the item that they see and they must have it. Usually it also doesn’t help when someone is on the TV saying, “and hurry up we only have 5 left!” The commenter of the movies explains that, “…persuaders listen to us when others won’t…marketer’s find a way inside us that we don’t even realize it at all…that maybe we are the persuaders.” We must induce the person to persuade themselves.

The Persuaders

I have found the PBS production of “The Persuaders” to be really informing and eye opening. It makes me not willing to watch the commercials that come on TV I don't want to persuade myself into buying something I don't need. Clotaire Rapaille a Market Research Guru he states that he has figured out the luxury code, he can tell a marketing firm what the code is to help them sale their product. I know that what you think you know about how a commercial is made and why you would be wrong. It is kind of scary how they get in your head and pick it apart just to sale you just what you want.

The Persuaders

In the Frontline special, “The Persuaders”, claim that advertisement is all around us. There is so much advertisement that it has created its own problem. Advertisement has created clutter, which has created another goal for Advertiser, which is to break through the clutter. Advertisers must create a message that stands out over the rest of the competition. Frontline then show some strategies that some companies use to market new products and businesses. One example that is used is Song; Song is a new airline company. Song’s goal, when it comes to advertisement, is to connect to people on an emotional level, by creating a culture around flying. Through their research or focus groups, Song’s advertisers found out that in the airline world, women needs and desires weren’t being met. Song then marketed themselves to women. Song created a Mascot named Carrie, that has an ideal middle to high class life. Song then used advertisement that tried to connect to people, but said nothing about being an airlines, in hopes to sell the soul of Song to the masses. Like most companies the question came down to “[s]hould the pitch be aimed at the head or the heart?” (persuaders). Frontline brings up the fact that in the early days of advertisements, that “ads laid claim to real, tangible differences between one product and another” (Persuaders). Now its all about what does the product means. That people will join cults and brands for the same reason, to belong. If a product means something, such as community, people will follow. Times are changing and because of the Internet and devices like Tivo, the traditional thirty second ad is no longer working. Advertiser are now using product placement in new ways; creating shows and movies that have products as part of the story lines. Frontline then talks about a man by the name of Clotaire Rapaille. Rapaille is the Market Research Guru; “[w]hat sets Rapaille apart from many other market researchers is his belief that consumers are driven by unconscious needs and impulses” (Persuaders). Rapaille, uses this belief to teach advertisers how to market their product. Frontline then discusses Political advertisement and how politicians lie to the public, buy telling the public what the public wants to hear. Also how the way a sentence is structured can make or break a product or politician, for example, “global warming” to “climate change”, "tax relief" instead of "tax cuts," and to replace the "war in Iraq" with the "war on terror” (Persuaders). Companies can also market to individuals. Acxiom has a database that is loaded with people’s, personal information, then sells that information to politicians and companies in what is called narrowcasting. Somehow this is all good, and the consumers are the one in control because the “Persuaders” listen to us and give us what we want; that in the end, we are all Persuaders.
What I found interesting was that Clotaire Rapaille ideas are the same as Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays is the father of Public Relation and why advertisers, advertise the way they do. Bernays is the reason why bacon and eggs is a true American breakfast. So when Douglas Rushkoff said in “the Persuaders” that, “[o]f course, it's impossible to know if Rapaille's excursions through the collective unconscious really uncover what drives us”, I feel that he is mistaken, because there is almost 100 years of evidence with Bernays’ work to back up Rapaille’s belief, that the subconscious part of the brain is what drives consumerism.

Quick summary of the documentry Pursuaded

In this documentary written by Barak Goodman & Douglas Rushkoff directed by Goodman & Rachel Dretzin and produced By Goodman, Dretzin & Muriel Soenens, Correspondent Douglas Rushkoff shows us several different views on ways Advertising has become a multibillion dollar industry who’s research teams specialize specifically in techniques to part the consumer with their money not only by appealing to their wants and needs but by tapping into the collective subconscious of the public at large. He also gives examples of how this technique has spilled over into the political arena and politicians are tapping into information gathering companies like Acxiom to acquire information used to manipulate voters on a more personal level. As put by Frank Luntz “ political and corporate adviser”  “80% of a person’s life is emotion and 20% is intellect, better to know how a person feels than how they think. According to people like Paul Woolmington (CEO, the media kitchen) they want to create a movement for their product almost on a cult like level. This documentary gives many examples on how the advertisers ,which also seems to be what politicians are today, are targeting specific people but more so it describes where they get these ideas and incites that lead them into what they believe is the realm of the subconscious mind of the people.