The Persuaders

What in "The Persuaders" surprised you (or not)? Name one new thing you learned about marketing or politics from watching the film. Name one new thing you learned about yourself from watching the film, or one thing that the film reiterated about yourself.

The thing that surprised me most about "The Persuaders" was the actual amount of research that goes into the examination of the target market. Being a communications advertising major it is hard to believe that I might be working with companies that know very personal details about ordinary people's lives. I think while the knowledge is useful and a great deal helpful, I also think that it is quite an invasive process. The importance of understanding one's target market is crucial for an effective ad campaign, but I feel like a line needs to be drawn at some point. Seeing the inside of a company who's sole purpose is to invade the personal lives of certain individuals was more than surprising; it was eyeopening and quite shocking. It is certainly an interesting business I am getting involved in.

"The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

I do not think advertising is a bad thing. In fact I love advertising. I buy magazines just so I can look at the ads. I enjoy being taken aback by a particularly well done ad and seeing things that can get me to react in different ways. The amount of advertising we see may seem a little overdone, but without it our world would be a very different place. Every major business needs sponsors and advertisers. I believe advertising is about more than just 'breaking through the clutter". I think it's about touching the people you are trying to reach. It is about speaking to the people, like myself, that are going enjoy seeing a certain type of advertisement. There are many different target audiences and advertising is all about effectively reaching a specific one. That is why I think the amount of advertising we have right now is just right. While one may think some ads don't stand out of the clutter, it may stand out to someone else. I don't think it makes a huge difference that people 20 to 30 years ago did not see as much advertising as we do today. People 20 to 30 years ago did not use computers like we do now and so far it's going just fine! Evolving through the years is important and quite interesting. I look forward to seeing where advertising will take us next!