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.