persuasi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ00mxNBxLI

PERSUASIVE DOCU

Please watch "The Persuaders" documentary - link in this week's module - then answer the following questions. You may use examples of moments or quotes from the documentary to support your discussion.

1. What in “The Persuaders” surprised you? Name one new thing you learned about marketing or politics from watching the film.

2. “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 than people 20 or 30 years ago?

3. What surprised you in the descriptions of how much demographic information marketers have about potential customers? What kinds of information would you be willing to share about yourself or your family in order to: get a discount on a product or get a free cell phone/tablet or get a new credit card? Would you be willing to reveal your name, address, and phone number? What about the music you listen to or what your favorite snacks are? The grades you made last semester? How much you or your parents/family earn? What medications you or your family take? What kinds of information would you want to keep private and why?

4. Marketer Kevin Roberts uses the term “lovemarks” to identify brands to which people are loyal even when devotion is not logical. Are there brands (or music/entertainment genres) to which you are devoted? When you stop to think about it, is your loyalty to any particular brand logical or a “lovemark”? If purchasing a particular brand isn’t logical, why would you, or anyone else, do it?

5. Advertising executive Douglas Atkins argues that brands now provide that same sense of belonging that was once provided by community institutions like schools, churches, civic groups, or fraternal orders. What provides you with a sense of belonging or identity? What role, if any, does marketing play in what you identify with? Do you feel identity because of the type of cell phone you have, car you drive, brand of clothes you wear?

6. Political consultant Frank Luntz tells his clients that “80 percent of our life is emotion and only 20 percent is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel that how you think.” This has led to a much more emotional type of political advertising. This also contrasts with Thomas Jefferson’s concept that democracy requires an “informed citizenry.” What is the potential impact of Luntz’s political strategy recommendations on the health of democracy?

7. Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield points out that there are laws governing truth in advertising for products and services, but that “politicians can legally say whatever they want.” Should political ads be governed by the same kinds of laws that govern product ads? Why do you think there aren’t such laws?

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