THE PERSUADERS

I watched the Persuaders in its entirety.

Watching the frontline special on advertising and marketing was eye opening. I never realized how much of a sub culture of itself was the world of advertising. Between the craziness of trying to figuring out how to get your ad to be set apart from the other ads that are out there, and the insane amount of money used to do so is enough to peak the average person swimming in the sea of messages interests, let alone a communication students interests.

After watching the special, I became more and more aware of what kind of advertisements I was being subjected to on a daily business. I realized that everywhere I go, everywhere I look, and every conversation I have in a day is subject to an advertisement of some sort. Walking into convocation every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is an advertisement machine as fellow students promoting their newest ministry endeavors try and reach you with flyers, donuts, and posters. Even doing an everyday task at my own school is filled with advertisements and brand building.

The second thing I noticed from the film was the amounts of resources used for a single add campaign. Companies throw money at advertising in hopes to brand their product. As shown through the film, a campaign is brought through the opinions of multiple qualified experts as they determine who their audience is and what will reach them best.   Throughout the Persuaders you followed as Song a new airline examines and figures out their brand. The film followed marketing and advertising experts discussed creative ideas on how to get their message out there and set apart from the static noise that advertising can be. To be perfectly honest, the whole thing almost gave me anxiety as I watched the marketing experts determine the best ways to reach their audience. To me, it felt like the marketers were trying so hard to stand out from other airlines, they forgot to advertise the purpose of the airline; affordable flights.

Overall I found the film to be interesting and informative. The rapid change in media creates a rapid change in advertising and brand building. As the sea of advertising noise grows larger and larger, the fight for companies to become noticed becomes harder. Advertisers have the responsibility to their clients to come up with creative campaigns that will be noticed in the sea.