Bits and Pieces

By Hailee Danielsen

The Persuaders has been the most influential for me this semester, because they focused on the consumer which is regular people like you and me. When I go into the store and by something I think it’s because I made my own decision. In actuality it is the advertisement that sold the product as the Persuaders touch on. The manufactures are trying to break through all of the clutter of their competition to reach out to us. An example would be the advertising skills that Macintosh uses for their I pod.


They try to get into the consumer’s head by creating an almost cult like atmosphere at their meetings in order to find a new way to break through the clutter that is created by all the manufacturers. As crazy as a cult like meeting may seem, Macintosh must be doing something right. With their sleek little gadget they have created a multi billion dollar product that everyone wants and now needs. In other words Macintosh has created this object as a need. As a college student it looks really neat against my jacket walking to class. To be anyone you need a sleek black I pod to create that image of fitting in in this type of college atmosphere.

Another thing that struck me that I did not know before was some of the tactics that advertisers use are being taken up by presidential candidates and campaigns. They try coursing a person into choosing their side by showing them small video clips in person by going door to door. This shows the voters that they are an actual person and not just a number. Also, they use video clips that pertain to certain views, cultures, and other important values that we have to get our votes. What is scary is they know all of this because of the files that they have of what we have purchased in the past, to what our favorite color is. This idea also pertains to the piece we had to read in class called the Word Lab by Nicholas Lemann.