Persuasion and Manipulating Public Opinion

I'm just going to mush my response to The Persuaders and my thoughts on the Bernays and Lippman articles into one post.

So firstly, the Persuaders. I thought this documentary was really interesting. Companies really have advertising down to a science, and because of their knowledge concerning what people want, getting people to think that they need a product, etc. they can easily get people to buy their product using a variety of different tactics and tools.
Some of it is kind of scary how easily we are manipulated and influenced by advertising. But it is also kind of funny how seriously advertisers take it. The portion of the film where the advertiser was asking a man what he though when he was drinking a soda (I believe that's what it was) and how he felt whenever he did so. The interviewee looked amazed that anyone would consider that he'd feel lonely while he was sipping a coke.

And now, onto the Bernays/Lippmann articles! I don't think that either piece was explicitly coercive. The Bernays piece was more for rhetoric and it's use in swaying public opinion among large groups of people for the benefit of a culture as whole. He did admit that it can be used for bad (his examples being the KKK and Mussolini), but then he also gave ample evidence that it could also be utilized for positive intent. I mainly agreed with his argument. Rhetoric has the ability to manipulate and force conformity on people, but it can also be used to get ideas out there to a large number of people and persuade them to accept ways of thinking that were once totally unconsidered (for example, Bernays explains a post-civil war convention that helped with the integration of African Americans as citizens).

As for the Lippmann article, he seemed more concerned about the narcissistic side of Rhetoric. He warned against the dangers of self-interested groups and their use of propaganda. He tries to get people to understand the advantages of open discussion and compromise. I think that his article was probably more coercive than the Bernays if I had to choose between the two.