The Persuaders

I thought this movie was very insightful. It showed how marketing works on the emotional level and what to watch out for. I gave my thoughts on the questions the author posed.

Is there something about Americans that makes them uniquely persuadable by advertising messages?

I don't believe American's are more persuadable than anyone else, I believe that we are in fact the opposite. America is the capital of capitalism, and marketing is the tool by which capitalism functions. Douglas Atkins points out that American's have been come very market literate because of how inundated we are by these messages. American's know very well when an ad is trying to deceive them.

What are the ramifications of a culture dominated by marketing and consumerism?

Douglas Rushkoff mentions that our culture has been replaced by marketing. We've become a consumer based culture. Instead of creating social bonds at church, we now bond at Starbucks or through branding. I would say that putting so much value into a material item is a bad thing, even if they are good values. Empowerment, going green, are great values to have, but not when your required to purchase an item to possess it. I believe this is just masking the value of possession with more respectable values, and is just covering deeper issues.

What might the future hold - where are the techniques of persuasion headed?

It looks like the future holds even more emotional based persuasion. Identifying the emotional bonds people create to words and ideas as they grow so they can be marketed to at an even deeper level. Marketers will try to use these emotional bonds to tie consumers to their product and to one another. A good example is the Harley Davidson example used in the movie.