The Persuaders and then some

As I was sitting there watching The Persuaders I kept thinking that I should be bored or something. An in class video that can keep my attention? I was surprised. The whole concept of advertising is so disturbing and extremely interesting. The fact that there is a place somewhere that has everyone's information stored in massive computers is very creepy. The whole part with Rapaille was cool. That there's a code for a certain product, just a simple word. The amount of research that goes into the posters, commercials and billboards is astonishing. As word the "Song" airline-I've never heard of it. It's sad the amount of time and money those people put into the commercial, they had such an elaborate idea. Maybe they should have thought to put an actual plane in their ad.

As for the eReserve articles flashes of my Mass Comm class came back to haunt me. We learned about Edward Bernays and being the father of public relations. I think that both articles are describing the persuasion of people's thoughts and ideas. Maybe it is coercive or maybe it just falls short of that, but they are definetely playing with our minds. Perhaps because Bernays is related to Freud or maybe it is just that easy to get into the public's mind. In any case it was very interesting to read all the different PR and advertising cases in both articles. I think that both authors approach their audience as just something they can mold, they recognize that they have their own thoughts and beliefs and they take that into account when tailoring advertisements to them. Mainly, they are just objects that they can play with and make them think a certain way. The Bernays article discussed removing prejudice as being a key part of manipulating public opinion. I think that's true. Prejudices shape the way we think of certain things and certain ideas as well. By removing prejudice or accepting a prejudice of something then the advertiser or PR agent can market their product or their thought directly to you. I'm out of ideas now. All that's left to say is that I keep coming back to my Mass Comm class and our Disney project that we had to do. If ever there was anyone that shaped the minds of the world it was Walt Disney, perhaps he read Bernays or Lippmann's work.

Very interesting.